This feels like a companion piece to the Ray Mortensen post from earlier in the year. New York Times Columnist David Gonzalez's gives us - Revisiting the South Bronx, 35 Millimeters at a Time - images he created 30 years ago on returning to the South Bronx after graduating college.

Benefit for Nicole: A Postcard Show

Postcard show and sale of original postcard-sized pieces of artwork created by both emerging and established artists to benefit Nicole Gagne, a fellow artist seriously injured in a staircase collapse in LIC.

Artwork will be sold at $40 per piece. Artists who donate will get excellent exposure in a show in NYC, and collectors walk away with a great piece of original art. All funds raised will go to help Nicole with her immediate expenses.
Submission Deadline: July 23, 2009

Event Location: Priska Juschka Fine Art, 547 W. 27th St. New York City. http://www.priskajuschkafineart.com

Event Date: Thursday, July 30th, 2009. 5:30P to 9:30P

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=97224180094

Exhibition follow ups

Two pieces on Sleeping Giant came out the same same day. Both Editors picked two different images they wanted to use. Very interesting

TONIGHT AT FXFOWLE GALLERY

T Minus and Counting

So we have just under one month to go before the opening reception for my solo exhibition, Sleeping Giant | 11101 Rezoned. May 7th has been slated for the event, which runs through June 19th, at FXFowle Gallery in NYC.
At the start of this taking photos as a career business, it is in the back of ones mind that one day your work may be seen hanging on a wall somewhere, with the right people musing and nodding their heads in appreciation of the images you broke your heart creating. It rarely seems to work out that way, as photography, just like most everything in life, is a lot of hard work, and actually paying the bills gets in the way of this great affection for your artistry. But Sleeping Giant has been an interesting journey so far, because at the start of this project the ultimate objective was possibly a show. Well low and behold an objective in photography attained. The hallelujah chorus comes after the opening I'm sure. The project itself has been reasonably smooth sailing to this point. Conception-shooting- printing- Blurb Book- to the Noguchi Museum here in NYC, picking it up for their book store. But the production of this show seems as hard as any commissioned job. I have seen friends and other artists get gobbled up in negotiating the time frame it takes from signing the contract to getting everything on the wall, so I have bee trying to timetable this down to the nth degree. You are of course relying on many other people to come through for you as opposed to running the whole shoot yourself. With Printers, Matters, Framers, Galleries, Cards, you have to be so ahead of the curve. Add in a little Murphy's Law for good measure, and this thing will creep up on your ass, and quick. Next thing you know, its heeere. One thing you learn when your shooting on the road or in the studio is be prepared. The arse will fall out of everything now and again but if you know this, the surprises aren't so...surprising. I have also been good about reaching out to people. Asking for help is not my forte but everyone I've asked has been more than willing to help the cause and it as been a great comfort to know people have your back. So major shout out to, Steve West at Moma, George LaCovera at Atelia4, Clint Downing at Downing Frames, Ken Allen at Ken Allen Studios, Aaron Rezny and of course the good people at FX Fowle, Brien and Andrea who as we get closer to the day will be sick and tired of me.
At this point all the prints are made. They are being mounted as we speak and will then go the framer, with about 2 weeks to go before the show goes up, all should be complete. That's the plan but I am absolutely positive one of these places will burn to the ground, sorry guys I prey not, and leave me holding the bag with a couple of days left to fix it all.
So if you hear a howl through the blogisphere in the next three weeks I'm sure it will probably be me, screaming at the photo Gods for playing such a shitty joke on me, but until that part of Murphy's Law raises it ugly head, its full steam ahead to May 7th.

Mary Ann Fahey of Umbrella Arts along with Juror Harvey Stein have sounded the call, National competition everyone - NYC gallery - subject "BED", go here for submission details.

http://www.umbrellaarts.com/content/view/12/26/

FROM HERE TO THERE, in less than 5 hours

On the left Anguilla, British West Indies and on the right Columbia County, New York.
Images taken the same day.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK photos of Ray Mortenson

I came across artist Ray Mortenson through his show at the Museum of the City of New York, where I worked for all of two days about 16 years ago. Those were the days when nobody in photography had yet really discovered 601 west 25th street and its amazing size loft spaces, the museum used a space the size of a football field just to store extra art. Which brings me to said Mr Mortenson's exhibition at one of our most underrated Museums. Broken Glass, photographs from the South Bronx, are images taken between 1982-1984. This is the era right when I arrived from Ireland, all googly eyed about the city. The images are an amazing document of a city in the throes of guess what, a social and economic crisis. The heart of the Regan years. So to say this show is prescient might be hyperbole but..... The then city, still struggling to regain its footing after the Blackout of '77 and the "Drop Dead" from President Ford, has never looked so desolate. Ray's work focuses on the miles of post apocalyptic neighborhoods, drained of almost any human nurturing, the poster child for urban decay. The buildings seem to stare back at you, the windows just empty eye sockets, black holes. The once proud brownstones, rooftops, facades demoralized past recognition. Snake Plisskin was not that far off. My first subway ride in NYC was from West 4th street to 205 street in the Bronx. I took the local at rush hour in the middle of September. Air conditioning!!! what air conditioning, the windows were open weren't they. I remember distinctly, being jammed into the car but able to see out the window, the shells, remnants, of what used to be neighborhoods, block after block. I didn't know the politics, but I did know it scared the shit out of me. No wonder nobody went to Yankee stadium. Of course I was on the wrong train and didn't realize till I got to the wrong destination, the mantra "take the 5 stay alive, take the 4 dead for sure" playing in my head. Which brings me back to the work. If anyone feels that they have a handle on New York, masters of their own universe, good for you, but take a trip to MCNY and have a gander at a time when the "capitol of the world" was becoming an also ran in its own country, one step ahead of the bank. A collection of the beautiful and mournful images in one of our saddest times.