College For Kids, part 1

For two weeks at the beginning of August, St. Louis Community College at Meramec was transformed into the College for Kids. Offering K-8 classes for gifted students, the courses ranged dramatically from chess instruction to animal demonstrations. As far as I could tell, I was the only educator representing photography this year, which explained the roughly 64 kids that came through my classroom. My three classes were Alternative Photography (1st week), Funography (2nd week), and The Photographic Series (2nd week). The experience was completely exhausting, but fun nonetheless.

Results after the jump–>

Lindsey

Continuing in my decision to concentrate on figurative work this summer, I am reposting this series that I shot with Lindsey some time ago. I’ve added a few images that have not been seen before as well.

Alexandra

I’ve decided to take a bit of a break from the more rigid structure of my art-making, and focus for a while on a classic motif, the human figure. Among subjects for artists, there is almost nothing more answerable to the timeless question of form or content than the body. For in the nude human form, we see both an object with wonderfully innate aesthetic qualities and a condition that we all closely identify with. Certainly, this is a Modernist direction that moves away from what I typically do, but it is surprisingly comfortable territory, and something that I have always been fascinated by.

In this group of images, Alexandra was an excellent collaborator that I hope to work with again soon. Alex has an amazing profile, bright eyes, and totally put up with my requests to have the human body positioned in ways that are physically impossible. Thanks again, Alex!

Rome, Fallen Again

(Contrary to some beliefs, the languished transition toward rail transportation, and the subsequent outpacing of Chicago over St. Louis in shipping, was not due to the city’s stubborn clench to outmoded steamboat technology.)

In 476, the western hemisphere of the Roman Empire fell`. Subsequently, centralized power dissolved for Rome, and so the once hot embers of one of human civilization’s mightiest kingdoms began to rapidly cool. At many times and for many reasons, St. Louis has been compared to Rome. Both cities shared an influential Catholic populace, and both cities achieved a considerable prominence, both at home and abroad. However, both cities also declined rapidly, almost inexplicably. While the fall of the Roman Empire is now widely understood, the reasons for the depreciation of St. Louis is less known. The story behind the exaltation and descension of the “Rome of the West” offers an interesting example of the potential effects of shifting markets, political uncertainty, and the introduction of new infrastructure, especially when adaptation is not in proportion to evolution. On a national level, St. Louis’ loss of scale gives insight to a rhetoric of urban decay and decline repeated over and again throughout the United States; if the sustainability of American cities is the question, then St. Louis could well be part of the answer.

St. Louis Shoots: Contemporary Street Photographers from St. Louis

Currently up at the International Photography Hall of Fame is an exhibition that I curated called, St. Louis Shoots: Contemporary Street Photographers from St. Louis. The exhibition will be on display until April 27, 2014, and the Museum’s hours are as follows:

M-Tu: closed
W-Th: 11a-6p
F-Su: 11a-4p

Anna Kuperberg’s South Side Exhibition

In case you missed it, here are my installation shots for the Anna Kuperberg’s South Side exhibition at the International Photography Hall of Fame. The show ran from February 7, 2014 to March 7, 2014. If you would still like to see some of Anna’s work in person, a portion of the South Side images are included in my new exhibition at IPHF, entitled, St. Louis Shoots: Contemporary Street Photographers from St. Louis (up through April 27, 2014).

St. Louis Shoots: Contemporary Street Photographers from St. Louis

Jarred Gastreich; St. Louis, 2013

I hope that all of you will make it to my next exhibition at the International Photography Hall of Fame, which I have guest curated for the Museum. The opening is March 7, from 6-9p, and the run is from 3/7 to 4/27.

Press release:

“St. Louis is a city with a rich photographic heritage stretching back almost to the very origin of the medium. Today, the cultural landscape of the city supports a diverse array of photographic artists, including a large network of street photographers who work with the city as either their subject or home base.

‘St. Louis Shoots: Contemporary Street Photographers from St. Louis’ features work from such recognized artists as Yvette Drury Dubinsky and Sam Fentress, while introducing the photographs of many talented newcomers. For an outsider’s perspective, the exhibition will juxtapose a portion of ‘Anna Kuperberg’s South Side’.

On view with the legendary photographs featured in ‘Decisive Moments: 20th Century Street Photography Prints from St. Louis Collections’, the exhibition offers an exciting comparison of current talent to those masters who defined the street.”

Some other images from the exhibition after the jump.

Upcoming Exhibition

Anna Kuperberg; South Side, St. Louis; image courtesy of Anna Kuperberg, © Anna Kuperberg

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum will feature Street Photography from February 7th to April 27th, 2014. The main show is called, Decisive Moments: 20th Century Street Photography Prints from St. Louis Collections, and will include works from such notable artists as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, André Kertész and many more.

The Kids Are Alright: Anna Kuperberg and Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine; Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch (They were all smoking), A.M. Monday, May 9, 1910; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection, LC-DIG-nclc-03489

On Black Tuesday, November 28, 1939, the thick gray smoke billowing from the many coal-burning furnaces around St. Louis literally choked out the sun. Noontime on Black Tuesday was described to have looked like just after sunset. Resulting from this, the city passed stricter legislation requiring infrastructure change and the use of cleaner burning fuels, which had the support of residents, who had foresaw something of their possibly catastrophic future in “the day that the sun didn’t shine”. Sometimes it takes a dramatic gesture to stir change…

More Alternative Photography

Both the anthotype above and the lumen print below are examples of contact printing, like the cyanotype in the previous post. All three were also exposed by the sun. An anthotype is made by mixing together an emulsion based of plant matter, in this case blackberries, applying this to paper, and lying the sandwiched print, glass and negative out in the sun for 1-4 weeks (depending on plant type). The sun bleaches unobstructed areas the paper. For the lumen print, a simple piece of MC darkroom paper is used (RC in this case). The print and negative (and hair in this case) are then taped to a window and left to expose from 20 minutes to one week (in my case).