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.

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.

ANAP blogs (Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich, Amy Elkins, Shen Wei)

A few of the ANAP artists also keep personal blogs on photography, which I’m deeming “required reading.”

For your perusal:

Alec Soth
Brian Ulrich
Amy Elkins
Shen Wei

Stay tuned for more required reading.

Co-curator Jörg Colberg: tall, lanky, German. Check out the ANAP Opening Reception Set on Flickr.

Friday night’s opening for A New American Portrait lived up to all the hype. It was one of the funnest openings we’ve ever hosted and it went so smoothly which was a relief. As you might know from pictures or in person, the gallery is tiny and the pre-show buzz was huge. Packed openings are fun and all, but can be anxiety provoking – I worry about pictures being knocked askew and cops issuing open container summonses (when the festivities inevitably spill out on to Spring St.) and about running out of booze. A million little things! It’s often hard for me to relax and have a good time. There were a few tense moments on Friday, but generally speaking I had a blast. The show looks gorgeous, all but two of the artists were in attendance and the weather was stunningly perfect.

I put up a set of opening night photos compliments of the ever-excellent Joe Holmes.

It was a really special night – I’m grateful to the jb intern crew for being totally on top of stuff and allowing me to relax and have a good time. (Not to mention the fact that most of them stayed behind to clean up so I could go on to the closing party at Silverstein for the even better in person than on her blog Zoe Strauss and her totally kick-ass show.) It was wonderful to have Christine Collins, Ben Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Alec Soth, Peter Haakon Thompson, Brian Ulrich and Shen Wei come from near and far to be there for the opening. And of course, I cannot even begin to tell you how great it’s been working with Jörg, my collaborator and my friend, who is seriously terrific and smart and wonderful. I wish he and his lovely wife Karen Tozzi lived here in NYC - then we could meet for breakfast at Veselka all the time!

Thanks to everyone who made it out, and I hope to see many more of you between now and when the show closes on August 3rd. We might even throw another event into the mix between now and then. Watch this space for more on ANAP, it’s artists and etc – we’ll continue to update the blog with juicy tidbits for the duration of the show.

Pushing Mesh by Peter Haakon Thompson, from the exhibition A New American Portrait

Over on the Saatchi Your Gallery blog , Lupe Nunez-Fernandez has some thoughtful words about A New American Portrait. Here’s a particularly juicy bit:

...the show offers a variety of issues to think about, but point of view might be one of the most fascinating here. All of the works share an ambiguous, theatrical sense of detachment, a way in which the exhibition suggestively opens up a conversation on the inherently contradictory elements in contemporary portraiture.

Have a look at the entire write-up here.

We are nearly finished hanging the show, and it’s looking good. Hope to see lots of you tomorrow!

Josh, Joelton, Tennessee 2004 by Alec Soth

Jörg has very kindly agreed to the occasional jb blog contribution in conjunction with our upcoming A New American Portrait exhibition, and I’ve promised to contribute some of my own thoughts on portraiture and the exhibition too. I’m working on it and will be posting here later this week (and throughout the show.) For some reason it’s easier for me to go on and on about, say, parking than it is for me to write about what I like and why when it comes to photography.

In the meanwhile, Alec Soth is articulate and on video talking about portraits, and the segments below are really worth a viewing. I’m especially fond of the third, The Ground Glass, where Alec describes a portrait as “A picture of the space between us.” Good stuff.

Odessa, Joelton, Tennessee, 2004 by Alec Soth

These videos were made by Mike Dust for The Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. I’ve added some relevant links below and included two of the images referenced in the post here too. Josh, Joelton, Tennessee 2004 is a favorite of mine and was on my short list to be included in the exhibition. Odessa, Joelton, Tennessee, 2004 looks entirely different to me after watching Alec shoot the photo in the video.

In October of 2004, photographer Alec Soth went on assignment for LIFE magazine to capture weekend soldiers at an Airsoft military simulation in Joelton, Tennessee.

In anticipation of his upcoming exhibition, filmmaker Mike Dust traveled alongside Soth for this three-day excursion, interviewing and shooting alongside him as he worked to capture images for, both the magazine shoot as well as for his personal work.

A number of these photographs (Odessa, Joelton, Tennessee, 2004 and Josh, Joelton, Tennessee, 2004) became part of the exhibition Alec Soth: Portraits at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts the following spring. The video piece created during that shoot was installed in the gallery as an accompaniment to the exhibition.

The video is broken into three segments entitled On Assignment, Portraiture, and The Ground Glass.

Alec Soth: Portraits – On Assignment (2:33, segment 1 of 3), 2005, Video, 8 minutes, produced and directed by Mike Dust, © 2005 National Projects

Alec Soth: Portraits – Portraiture (2:25, segment 2 of 3), 2005, Video, 8 minutes, produced and directed by Mike Dust, © 2005 National Projects

Alec Soth: Portraits – The Ground Glass (3:06, segment 3 of 3), 2005, Video, 8 minutes, produced and directed by Mike Dust, © 2005 National Projects

Benno Schmidt, Portland Harbor by Spring Hot Shot Mark Marchesi

It’s been a big week at the jb. The Hey, Hot Shot! Spring Edition opening last night was a blast. You still have time to check out the exhibition: it’s on view this Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Noon-6pm.

Next up: we’ll spend the week getting ready for our big opening event on Friday June 22, for our Summer group exhibition A New American Portrait.

Here’s a round up of all the gallery related online mentions as of late:

Hey, Hot Shot! featured on the blog for Popular Photography magazine

Rob Walker interviews Jen about 20×200

Unbeige on 20×200

Josh Spear’s Heather Snodgrass on 20×200

Gallery Hopper on 20×200

Photographer Julian Thomas reconsiders 20×200

Photo-Muse on 20×200, but wait there’s more

JPG Magazine Blog on A New American Portrait

Jason Kottke on A New American Portrait

Photographer Greg Wasserstrom is really excited about A New American Portrait

Turkey Amanita – Amy Ross

It’s been a little hectic lately, and new posts have been scarce. We are sorry. We’ll try better this month.

If you haven’t seen Amy Ross’ show Anima Mundi, this is your last chance! Thursday, June 7 will be the last day to see it and it’s definitely worth dropping by. We have gotten tons of positive feedback and am happy that people love the show.

In other news, we are installing a new jen@joe show at the Joe location on 13th between University Place and Fifth Avenue on Wednesday, June 6. (Which means you get fresh art with your morning coffee on Thursday the 7th!)

Another reminder, Hey, Hot Shot, Spring ‘07 Edition is opening on Wednesday, June 13, from 6-8pm. The show will be up from June 14–17, 2007 and quite a show it promises to be! Get on down, see the work and support the winners:

Clint Baclawski
Nina Berman
Michael Julius
Karolina Karlic
Mark Marchesi
Casey Orr
Justin James Reed
Pavel Romaniko
Kelly Shimoda
Daniel Traub

But things never stay quiet as A New American Portrait, a group photography show co-curated with Jörg Colberg of Conscientious, opens soon after on Friday, June 22, which means a wild week for the jb staff.

Despite all of the upcoming craziness, we still have a moment to chat with friends. Jenni Holder, former Director of Edwynn Houk Gallery and current Hot Shot Panelist, dropped by the gallery earlier this week to say hello while she was in town. Check out her flickr (her children are very cute) and a past interview she conducted with Jen at Fotolog.

Stay tuned for more news and updates.

Cow Birch with Birds (detail) by Amy Ross

Most people think of the jb as a photography gallery, but I say: Why limit myself? I don’t show other media all that often, but that’s likely to change over time, especially if I keep meeting people like Amy Ross who makes work that’s right up my alley and is an amazing hilarious and excellent person to boot.

Sheep Magnolia (detail) by Amy Ross

At first glance Amy’s work seems oh so pretty – lovely delicate brushwork, the soft colors of Spring time. Ahh. But wait: the trees have hooves and that knot halfway up one of them is a dewy unblinking bovine eye. Those nearly translucent magnolia buds are actually lambs. That she is a wolf. Amy’s taken genetic commingling to fantastical heights, but her permutations don’t seem all that outre when you consider that there are rice crops engineered to contain human genes in the offing.

Cow Birch with Barred Owls (detail) by Amy Ross

Amy’s exhibition of paintings, anima mundi, opens at jen bekman on Friday April 27th.

For more about Amy’s exhibition:
Read the press release.
View images.
Read Amy’s bio.
If you’re interested in purchasing work by Amy, send an email to sales AT jenbekman DOT com.

Photographer Benjamin Donaldson’s Summerland is a series of portraits documenting the subject within a hypnotic state wherein they are instructed to experience “the most beautiful landscape imaginable.”

Please join us on Friday March 16th from 6pm-8pm at a reception for the artist:

jen bekman
6 Spring St
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012
Ph: +1.212.219.0166

Gallery Hours
Wed – Sat | Noon – 6pm
or by appointment

You can see more images and read the press release on the gallery’s website. The exhibition will remain on view through Saturday April 21st.

Sidenote:

There’s been a great conversation about portraiture in general on various photography blogs. Portrait of Many a post on my own blog, Personism is a good place to start. Also not to be missed, photographer Alec Soth’s post Portraits and Mug Shots post. (Don’t skip over the interesting conversation in his comments section!)

Please join us at an opening reception in honor of the Winter ‘07 edition Hot Shots:

jen bekman
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Hey, Hot Shot! Winter 2007 Edition

Opening Reception
Wednesday March 7, 2006 | 6pm – 8pm
Tasty beverages provided by Crumpler, makers of excellent bags, in particular excellent photo bags.

The exhibition is on view Thursday – Sunday, March 8-11, 2007 from noon – 6pm.
Do drop in!

Learn more about this season’s Hot Shots on the Official Hey, Hot Shot! Blog:
Holly Andres
Colin Blakely
Jeffrey Krolick
Juho Kuva
Molly Landreth
Brad Moore
Kirby Pilcher
Ben Roberts
Mickey Smith
Ka-Man Tse

Check out Selections from the Winners. (via a Flickr photoset)
Visit the Hey, Hot Shot! web site.

Mosaic Image Credits

The January edition of PDN has a two page spread on James Deavin’s recent exhibition, Photographs from the New World. Unfortunately I can’t link you to the article, since it’s available to subscribers only online, but a) it sure looks purty (lots of photos from the exhibition) and b) the writer, Scott Tillitt, did a great job and was a pleasure to work with.

The issue is on newsstands now, but here’s a snippet to tide you over:

In another real-life parallel, most non-professionals use the camera like a point-and-shoot and simply save small JPEGs to their hard drives—pictures of friends and family and such “to act as memory in the future,” Deavin says. And that’s how he thinks his own images can best be understood: “as a piece of Second Life history, markers of a time when people were still viewing the new world through the eyes of the old.” As gallery owner Jen Bekman sees it, Deavin is “an explorer in this new territory, largely uncharted and almost entirely a mystery to the general public.”

Please join us at an opening reception in honor of the Fall edition Hot Shots:

jen bekman
6 Spring St (between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Hey, Hot Shot! Fall 2006 Edition

Opening Reception
Wednesday December 13, 2006 | 6pm – 8pm
Tasty beverages provided by Crumpler, makers of excellent bags, in particular excellent photo bags.

Warm Your Toes Open House
Saturday December 16, 2006 | Noon – 3pm
Joe will be serving their divine coffee along with some delicious treats. It’s a perfect opportunity to check out the show, meet some artists and warm up from holiday shopping.

Other than that, the exhibition is on view Thursday – Sunday, December 14-17, 2006 from noon – 6pm.
Do drop in!

Learn more about this season’s Hot Shots: Check out the aweseome interviews that Alice has been conducting over on The Official Hey, Hot Shot! Blog.

More information than you can shake a stick at:

Hey, Hot Shot! web site
Images, Inventory Details + Prices (via a Flickr photoset)
jen bekman web site

Mosaic Image Credits:
1. By Your Side (Distance) by Chad Muthard, 2. Misha’s Living Room, Tambov, Russia by Sasha Rudensky, 3. Joey by Shen Wei, 4. third avenue, brooklyn by Joseph O. Holmes, 5. seventh avenue, brooklyn by Joseph O. Holmes, 6. Meribel, 2006 by Patrick Smith, 7. Cap Blanc-Nez, 2006 by Patrick Smith, 8. Untitled (Bethlehem) by Victoria Rich, 9. Untitled (from I’m in the Wrong Film) by Hans Gindlesberger, 10. The Drive (With Pete) by Chad Muthard, 11. Untitled by Mette Maersk, 12. Cake Stare by Joe Fornabaio, 13. Frieda by Juliana Beasley

jbSL in TONY (trans: This week’s issue of TimeOut NY has an article about the virtual version of jen bekman that we constructed in Second Life in conjunction with James Deavin’s Photographs from the New World exhibition.)

The article is called Life Imitates Art and it’s written by Howard Halle. It’s on page 7 of the actual printed magazine if you happen to get it.

Which brings me to another thing: the exhibition (the real one, in the gallery on Spring Street!) closes this Saturday, December 9. If you haven’t made it by yet, do drop in!

To visit jbSL, follow this SLurl.

We’ll be hosting a what-promises-to-be-excellent artists talk @ jen bekman this Wednesday evening, November 29th, from 6pm -8pm. (We’ll mingle and have refreshing beverages til 7pm, and the artists talk will last til about 8.)

Moderator Marisa Olson, an artist and the Editor and Curator of of Rhizome.org, will lead a casual conversation with James Deavin and Eva + Franco Mattes. The discussion will be about their respective projects documenting Second Life.

Deavin’s Photographs from the New World, mostly landscapes and interior shots, is on view at the gallery through Saturday December 9th and in Second Life at jbSL, the gallery’s virtual location, through the end of December.

The Matteses’ portrait series, 13 Most Beautiful Avatars, is showing now at Ars Virtua Gallery in conjunction with the Time Shares series co-presented by Rhizome and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and will be in a “real world” show opening on 11/30 at the Italian Academy, at Columbia.

We have a limited amount of space, so please RSVP if you’d like to attend: rsvp AT jenbekman DOT com.

jen bekman
6 Spring St
between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012

Image: Untitled by James Deavin | 30” x 40” C-print

Untitled (Three) by Fall Hot Shot Patrick Smith

We just announced the winners for the Fall 2006 Edition of Hey, Hot Shot! over on the competition’s blog. And the winners are….

Juliana Beasley
Joe Fornabaio
Hans Gindlesberger
Joseph O. Holmes
Mette Maersk
Chad Muthard
Victoria Rich
Sasha Rudensky
Patrick Smith
Shen Wei

The Fall Edition opening reception, featuring delicious top-shelf beer from HHS! sponsor Crumpler, is Wednesday, December 13 from 6–8pm. The show will be up from December 14–17, 2006.

In other good news, the Fall Hot Shots will be included in the first of its kind HHS! Yearbook, brought to you by Blurb — out this December! (In the for the opening reception, is what we’re hoping!)

As always, many thanks to our fantastic group of panelists, to Jeff Kirsch and Jesse Chan-Norris for all their hard work and commitment to the jb, and, of course, a big thank you out to all of the participants!

In addition to the winners who will be showing @ jb, there are Honorable Mentions too:

Joslin Van Arsdale, Alain Astruc, Meg Birnbaum, Karin Bubas, Alana Celii, Larissa Cleveland, Cary Conover, Rachel Herman, Alexandra Huddleston, Siri Kaur, Drew Kelly, Orrie King, Daniel Kopton, Suzette Lee, Nick Meyer, Stephen Miller, Graeme Mitchell, Mark Rubenstein, Lissa Rivera, Angie Smith, Sam Sweezy, Grant Willing, Christopher Young.

I am whupped from all the reviewing and deliberating, which was really quite agonizing this time around. I suppose having too much good stuff to choose from is a nice problem to have, but it was still really hard putting the final list together.

The final hours to enter Hey, Hot Shot! are upon us. The deadline is today @ 6pm.

This is the last chance to enter for 2006…  We’ll be announcing the Fall Edition winners next Monday, and shortly after that we’ll announce the 2006 Ne Plus Ultra Hot Shots who will show in our January Annual.

You still have a few more hours, so apply now.

From this weeks edition of Flavorpill NYC:

James Deavin’s exhibition Photographs from the New World documents the DIY world of Second Life, where users create avatars and detailed online environments in order to live out their dreams. The camera function inside Second Life captures high-resolution images that allow Deavin to produce large digital c-prints. Untitled (lift), a serene shot of a digitally rendered ski lift in clouds, has a remarkable relationship to Untitled (cricket), an aerial photograph by Deavin of an actual cricket pitch in the UK, shot using the same compositional techniques. Testaments to the rich culture of Second Life and Deavin’s talents, these prints embody the quiet contemplation the virtual world provides its residents.

We are feverishly preparing for the opening of Photographs from the New World, which opens tomorrow @ 6pm. The real world work is looking fantastic. The prints are absolutely yummy. James and I just spent a few hours tearing each other’s throats out debating the best way to hang the show and the final result is going to be awesome.

In other news, thanks to huge efforts by Nic Musolino and our Second Life hero, Cyrus Bryan Campen we’ll have a jen bekman gallery in SL too. We’re still putting the finishing touches on it, but it’ll be live in time for the opening tomorrow. Cool? So cool.

The image above is the most recent version, and it looks an awful lot like the gallery does in person, exposed brick and all.

See you all tomorrow Wednesday November 1st, from 6pm – 8pm:

jen bekman
6 Spring Street
(between Elizabeth + Bowery)
NYC 10012
Phone: +1.212.219.0166
Email: info AT jenbekman DOT com

I’m very excited about this exhibition which is opening next Wednesday.. You can go to the gallery website to view images, or you can read the press release if you click the “read on” button at the bottom of this post.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE NEW WORLD 
November 1 – December 9, 2006

NEW YORK, NY – jen bekman is pleased to present Photographs from the New World, an exhibition of new work by James Deavin. The exhibition will be on view from November 1 – December 9, 2006, at jen bekman, located at 6 Spring Street, between Elizabeth and Bowery, New York, 10012.
Photographs from the New World documents user-generated landscapes in the online, virtual world Second Life.
Jen Bekman will host an opening reception for the artist on Wednesday, November 1, from 6:00 – 8:00pm at the gallery.
From being featured recently in Rob Walker’s ‘Consumed’ market trendspotting column in The New York Times Magazine to the surprising success of insider web sites devoted to the virtual world and its inhabitants, Second Life has begun to attract the sort of real world fervor that its fans experience when they log in and assume their alter egos. A real life corporate presence is emerging there – companies like Starwood, Intel, American Apparel and Penguin Books UK are getting in on the action building virtual versions of their businesses in SL.
Deavin says, “Second Life is a place where people can live out their dreams. Some people’s dreams are to have a bigger version of what they already have. Others’ fondest wish is to be a talking elephant from Mars. Second Life is not a ‘game’ – there is no ‘next level,’ no ‘level boss,’ there is no winning or losing. Rather, characters enter into complex relationships, build things, earn and spend money. In fact, the world turns over ten million dollars a month. This money is spent in the market place and certain consumer products have become ubiquitous: grand pianos, waterfalls, boats, Japanese gardens. If money were no object, is this how real life would look?”
Gallery director Jen Bekman observes, “I am naturally inclined to be interested in a visualization of a virtual world. I have been involved in virtual communities since the early nineties and it remains a big part of my everyday life, but only as text. Many of the photographers I work with create the fantastical from the mundane. In these photographs James is documenting other people’s manifestations of fantasy and uncovering their interpretations of what physical trappings provide happiness and comfort and/or signify success.”
About the Artist

James was born in 1973 in London in the UK. He graduated from King’s College in 1995, with a bachelor’s degree in Classics. His earliest assignment was traveling to Bosnia at the time of the ceasefire in 1995 with an aid convoy. Since then he has had documentary and portrait work published in magazines including the London Times, Sunday Review, W, Harper’s, Photoworks, 125 and Next Level. He has exhibited in various group shows including the inaugural Brighton Photo Biennial, Art and Commerce Emerging Photographers, and at jen bekman.
Photographs from the New World at jen bekman, 6 Spring Street.
Hours: Wednesday — Saturday, noon – 6pm or by private appointment.
For images or more information, please contact Lauren Cerand: 917.533.0103 or press@jenbekman.com.