Jewish Photographer Raising Awareness of AIDS in America

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Kerie Campbell, Member of WORLD Postcard Annie Leibovitz Photographer This postcard features a great photograph of Kerie Campbell. The woman's nude body is covered in body paint.

Through her portraits, Jewish photographer Annie Leibovitz fights stigma, raises awareness and puts a human face on AIDS. In 1986, Leibovitz photographed a Kenneth Cole ad to raise awareness of AIDS in America. That effort continued in a series of projects including the INSPI(RED) and Be Here for the Cure campaigns. These have been defining moments in the history of the epidemic including her photograph of Kerie Campbell, a mom and artist who lost custody of her children  because she was HIV positive. This summer The Bronx Museum of the Arts presents "Art AIDS America," an exhibition examining the ongoing influence of the AIDS crisis on American art and culture and it features Leibovitz's photograph of Kerie Campbell.

Saints And Pinups: Personal Shrines of Palermo, Italy – in Pictures

THE GUARDIAN

ITALY---French photographer Emma Grosbois found a corner of Sicily hiding in plain sight. Shrines to dead relatives and saints – as well as footballers and glamour models – are built on walls to keep memories alive. ‘In the words of the man who is usually sitting in this armchair: “It is to remember. You are using the images as a way of trying to continue something that used to exist and that you would otherwise risk losing. That is why you put images of dead people, of those who are lost, in chapels – it is to say that this person was important to society, they were important for the street, for the neighbourhood, or you risk losing the human memory. We’re in trouble if we lose that.”’[link]

Jeremy Horner's New Book of Photos Captures the Spellbinding Worship of Buddhism Across Asia

THE DAILY MAIL
By Becky Pemberton

Buddhist monks gather at a candlelight procession held for the annual mass inauguration of new monks at the Wat Phra Dhammakaya, a temple north of Bangkok, Thailand. The holy site is the centre of the Dhammakaya Movement, a Buddhist sect founded in the 1970s and led by a monk called Phra Dhammachayok

Photographer Jeremy Horner embarked on a pilgrimage to 16 countries where Buddhism is practiced, capturing the vibrant worship of the faith. Horner's breath-taking collection, which will be showcased in a photography book published by Goff Books, San Francisco on October 15 this year, captures aspects of each country on his exploration. 'Sharing experiences with the pilgrims, nuns, monks and novices across 16 Asian countries where Buddhism is embraced, has nurtured a reverence and belief in the calm and reassuring strength of this faith,' Horner wrote on Maptia. [More]

Moroccan Artist Hassan Hajjaj Photographs His Rock Star Friends

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Hassan Hajjaj, Mr Toliver, 2010, Metallic lambda print on 3mm white dibond, 53 1/2h x 39 5/8w in, 136h x 100.5w cm. Courtesy of the Newark Museum

TENNESSEE---The Brooks Museum of Art showcases Moroccan-born, UK-based art Hassan Hajjaj and the eclectic group of nine musicians from around the world whom the artist sees as his own personal “rock stars.” The exhibition, "Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars" features the artist’s video of these musicians, composed of nine separately-filmed performances each in the same compositional format as accompanying photographs. The video and related photographs are being presented in a salon environment designed by Hajjaj to evoke the color, style, and energy of a contemporary Moroccan marketplace.

Strong Jewish Women of the Bible by Ruth Schreiber

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 3, 8-9)" by Ruth Schreiber

Israeli-based artist Ruth Schreiber spent 25 years raising her family and working in research, art and design. Since 1997, she has been a docent at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. At the same time, she has been developing her own work with a variety of media including ceramic, video, and photography. "I have been working on a series of photographs illustrating critical moments in the Jewish Bible and related sources," said Schreiber, "which depict powerful, independent women." I attach most of them here, for your reaction." Ruth has exhibited and sold her art in Israel, Europe, and North America. [artist-page]

Hassan Hajjaj Empowers Arab Women in Recent Photo Exhibition

ARTNET NEWS
By Amanda Thomas

Hassan Hajjaj, Head to Head (2006). Photo: Courtesy of Hassan Hajjaj and The Third Line, Dubai.

In March 14, Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj opened his newest collection of gender-redefining images at The Third Line art gallery in Duabi. Titled "La Salle de Gym des Femmes Arabes," or the "Gym for Arab Women," the photographs in the exhibition were taken over the course of many years in different locations. In this series, Hajjaj looks to re-define gender norms in the context of athleticism, by placing female figures in the gym or other spaces that are traditionally perceived as masculine. [link]

Jeff Wall's huge triptych evokes the altarpieces of the European Renaissance

ARTNET | NEWS
By Blake Gopnik

"Staircase & two rooms" (2014) by Jeff Wall

When I came across this recent piece by Jeff Wall at Marian Goodman gallery in New York, it struck me as one of the best things he's ever done. Maybe that's because at this time of year my mind tends to be filled with Christian imagery, and Wall's work suddenly seemed to be a good fit. His huge triptych instantly evoked the multi-panel altarpieces of the European Renaissance. I'm not saying I'd rather live in a world of belief, but the contrast between Wall and, say, Bellini makes clear that religion once had its rewards. [link]

Black Icons of the Bible by James C. Lewis in time for Christmas

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

A pregnant "Mary & Joseph" by James C. Lewis (Book of Matthew) is the perfect image for the Advent season of waiting and expectation for what is ahead.

GEORGIA---Just in time for Christmas, the creative shop of James C. Lewis (N3k Photo Studios) is making his "Icons of the Bible" available for every home. The "Icons" series of contemporary Black actors portraying Biblical figures was launched today on FineArtAmerica.com. N3K Photo Studios is a one stop creative shop located in Atlanta, GA. The "Icons of the Bible" are available as prints and even throw pillows. In his own words, "Experience the Gospel in living color" this holiday season. [Purchase]

Thomas Laird's photos make Tibet's hidden murals accessible to the world

HYPERALLERGIC
By Carey Dunne

A detail from the murals in the Dalai Lamas’ private meditation chapel, painted circa 1700, depicting yogis in 23 yoga positions, titled “The Secret Keys of the Channels and Winds.” (all images courtesy of Thomas Laird and the Wellcome Collection and used with permission)

UNITED KINGDOM---On an island in a pond behind the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet sits the Lukhang Temple, or “Temple to the Serpent Spirits,” a secret meditation space created by the Dalai Lama in the 17th century. For hundreds of years, this temple was closed to anyone but the Dalai Lama himself. Now, though, images of these long-hidden murals are accessible the world over, thanks to American photographer Thomas Laird, who in the spring of 1986 was the first to ever shoot inside this sacred chamber. [link]

David LaChapelle's journey from fine art to fashion and back again

ARTNET NEWS
By Amah-Rose Abrams

David LaChapelle Kanye West: Passion of the Christ (2006) Photo: Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery

NEW YORK---Bright, uplifting, sexy, and brilliant—David LaChapelle's work is highly prized in a culture obsessed with all things Pop. His career has been characterized by a boomerang-like trajectory, beginning in a contemporary art mileu and blossoming into commercial success, only to find its way back to where it started. But in 2006, the hard-working LaChapelle abruptly left the business and moved to Hawaii to live in seclusion, citing exhaustion. After a few years, a friend suggested that he could exhibit fine art photographs again. LaChapelle has since compared the experience of returning to fine art photography to being reborn. [link]

Jewish houses once branded with the yellow star of the Nazis stand empty

THE GUARDIAN

By Gwen Jones

Nigel’s pictures present us with doorways – domestic openings in a hectic cityscape inscribed with lingering evidence of human habitation. There are no people.

BUDAPEST---In his daily walks around Budapest, the Irish photographer Nigel Swann, who has lived in the city for over 10 years, has photographed the entrances to hundreds of apartment blocks – their doors, letterboxes, graffiti, vitrines and facades in various states of disrepair. Unbeknown to him, many of them 70 years ago were “yellow-star houses”. Upon discovering a list of said houses, he revisited and rephotographed all of them. From 21 June until late November 1944, all Jewish Budapest citizens were obliged to wear the yellow star and live under curfew in a designated house with the same marking, usually made out of cardboard. [link]

Collecting: Artur Walther 's private collection of African photography

ARTNEWS
By Anne Doran

Artur Walther. ORLA CONOLLY/COURTESY THE WALTHER COLLECTION

NEW YORK---In 2005, when Okwui Enwezor, “....was looking for an outlet to do exhibitions,” [Brian] Wallis recalled recently, “and I asked him if he could do a show of contemporary photography from the whole African continent, and he said, ‘OK—there’s a lot of great stuff.’ Anyway, having traveled around China with Christopher, Artur [Walther] was immediately up for crisscrossing Africa for four weeks with Okwui.” These days Walther is looking awfully prescient. At the moment, four New York museum shows include photographs by artists represented in his collection. [link]

African artists revive Mali's African Biennial after radical islamist take over

ARTNET | NEWS
By Henri Neuendorf

Aboubacar Traore Inch'Allah (2015) Photo: theglowingcolours.com

MALI---After a forced four year hiatus due to political instability and war, the African Biennale of Photography Bamako Encounters—one of Africa's key cultural events—is back for its 10th edition. Aboubacar Traoré's Inch'Allah series (2015) for instance depicts subjects wearing a large black sphere on their heads. The photographer explains the images represent how religious ideology blinds people. “With that on your head, you can't think and you can't see, you are bound to kill yourself and other people," he said. When radical islamists took over northern Mali in 2012 they quickly implemented a ban on television and music. “I don't think they mentioned photography specifically, but they banned any representation of reality that is not by God," Traoré explained. [link]

India's PondyPHOTO stages ‘Water’ photo exhibition

THE HINDU
By Annie Philip

Photos of tribal people exhibited inside the Old Distillery, during the first edition of the festival in Puducherry. Photo: S.S. Kumar

INDIA---After having transformed the premises of the unused Old Distillery in Puducherry into a space for public art for the first edition of PondyPHOTO in 2014, the organisers are back with the second edition of the festival with the Old Port on the southern end of the Beach Promenade here set to be the stage, and ‘Water’ the theme. The festival scheduled from February 13 to 28, 2016, will feature a large scale photography exhibition, moving pictures, dance, theatre, workshops and discussions, apart from outreach programmes. [link]

In the Bronx, photographing a church for the poor

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By David Gonzalez

Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times

For the last half of the summer, and in anticipation of Pope Francis’ visit to New York, Ángel Franco, a New York Times staff photographer, and David Gonzalez, a New York Times columnist and co-editor of the Lens blog, have been reporting “In the Bronx, ‘Poor Church’ Is More Than a Papal Phrase,” a story that looks at the life of a merged Roman Catholic parish in the Bronx. [link]

Photographer travels where gay love can mean death

THE NEW YORK TIMES | LENS 
By Robin Hammond

LASER / ISRAEL

Almost 2.8 billion people live in countries where identifying as lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and intersex could lead to imprisonment, corporal punishment or even death. The project took me to seven countries where persecution of L.G.B.T.I. people is widespread, and in each place local activists introduced me to the survivors of discrimination. We created whereloveisillegal.com to share the stories I’ve documented and to encourage others to share their stories of persecution and survival. [link]

Painstakingly assembled images of sacred spaces by T Magazine

T MAGAZINE
By Jamie Sims

Pisa, Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, 2008-2014. CreditMarkus Brunetti, via Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

NEW YORK---The German photographer Markus Brunetti doesn’t have a home. For the past 10 years, he has been traveling through Western Europe in a truck with his partner, Betty Schoener, photographing the facades of churches, cathedrals and cloisters in minute detail. His process is exhaustive.... A selection of these images will be on view at Yossi Milo gallery in New York this September, some printed at a whopping 10 feet tall. [link]

Deana Lawson's "Garden of Eden" and other Black cultural histories

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

"The Garden" (2014) by Deana Lawson. Gemena, DR Congo, 2014.
© Deana Lawson. Courtesy of Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago.

ILLINOIS---New York-based photographer Deana Lawson starts her process by researching communities she has chosen for their cultural histories. The resulting images are often inspired by multiple trips or planned well in advance. They draw upon Western and African diasporic conventions of self-presentation, popular culture, mythology, and religious rituals and beliefs—emphasizing dialogues among the past, present, and future of black culture.

The Art Institute of Chicago: "Deana Lawson: Ruttenberg Contemporary Photography Series" (Sept. 5, 2015 to Jan. 10, 2016); 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill; (312) 443-3600; artic.edu

Photographer Steve Schapiro follows the current hippie generation's search for "bliss"

ARTDAILY

In Bliss, Schapiro focuses on a subculture of the current hippie counterculture known as "Bliss Ninnies".

PUBLISHING---There's a new free-spirit movement afoot, and it has more to do with meditation, yoga, fellowship, good vibes, communal celebration, and a search for the divine than it does with the mind-altering substances of its 60s predecessor. In "Bliss: Transformational Festivals & the Neo Hippie" (powerHouse books, October 2015), Steve Schapiro, an internationally renowned photographer.... Here multitudes come to commune with nature, other like-minded souls, and with all that is divine and inspirational in the wide, multi-hued spectrum of human spirituality. [link]

Empty Quarter presents its #Ramadan 2015 selection of Fine Art photography

ARTDAILY

Bruno Barbey, The City Wall Essaouira 1987.

DUBAI---The Empty Quarter presents its Ramadan 2015 selection of Fine Art photography from acclaimed artists inspired by the Asian and Arabic cultures and their traditions. The exhibition brings together works taken on hot soils such as Africa, Morocco, Egypt and many others to unlock their traditions and cultures, and present them to the general public in order to open minds. While Peter Sanders created a striking and disparate record of the last vestiges of traditional Muslim societies in transition, Mario Marino - as well as Kai Löffelbein - explores the authenticity in the face of a hard-hitting reality. [link]