I'm Shen Wei. I'm a Photographer

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Yay, Shen!

I've Been Hijacked

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I just received two copies of the wonderful new photo book, Hijacked Volume One: Australia and America. The book was edited by Mark McPherson & Max Pam and is an excellent survey of emerging photographers in Australia and America. They were kind enough to include eight of my photos over twelve pages in the book. Also included are friends Jon Gitelson, Lisa Kereszi, Bill Sullivan, Shen Wei, Grant Willing and Alana Celii.

Mark McPherson has been quite the hustler and has managed to set up book launches and exhibitions in New York, Berlin and Australia. The video below is from ABC Australia about the exhibit at The Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.



Pick up a copy today.

Eight Photographers, Eight Weeks

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White Horse © Tema Stauffer

Tonight the Randall Scott Gallery in Washington, D.C. kicks off an interesting summer program. Randall has lined up eight amazing photographers to do four two-week, two-person shows. The opening tonight will include work by all eight photographers and then Saturday begins the first two-person show featuring Tema Stauffer and Kyoko Hamada.

In the coming weeks Randall will be presenting two-person shows featuring Jessica Dimmock and Peter Van Agtmael, Alexandra Catiere and Shen Wei and Alison Brady and Ryoko Suzuki. If you are in the district this is a rare chance to see some great photography in rapid fire succession.

Here are the details:

Eight Photographers
Randall Scott Gallery
July 11th—Sept 5th
1326 14th Street NW
Washington, D.C.
Opening Reception: Friday, July 11, 7-9pm

SVA in the Mother F'n House

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Untitled, 2004 (#3) © Thomas Holton

At least once a week I get an email from a photographer asking me if they should apply to the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography program. My answer is always yes and I give a host of reasons why they should consider the school including the facilities, the faculty and the location. The best reason I can give, however, is the amazing work and success of the people who have been through program.

Today I opened the latest edition Photograph Magazine and it seemed like an SVA yearbook. Besides my own show currently at Paul Kopeikin, thank you very much, there were full and two-page ads for upcoming solo shows by fabulous SVA grads Thomas Holton, JeongMee Yoon and Matthew Pillsbury. Throw in Shen Wei, Katie Kingma, Daniel Traub and Domingo Milella being named to PDN's 30 list and you are talking about a red letter week for the School of Visual Arts MFA program.

Here are the details on these upcoming must-see shows:

Thomas Holton, The Lams of Ludlow Street
Sasha Wolf Gallery
New York, NY
March 6 - April 26

JeongMee Yoon, The Pink & Blue Project
Jenkins Johnson Gallery
New York, NY
March 6 - April 26

Matthew Pillsbury, Elapsed
Bonni Benrubi Gallery
New York, NY
April 3 - May 31

I will be at Sasha Wolf tonight for Thomas' opening and at Jenkins Johnson on Saturday for JeongMee's opening. See you there.

UPDATE: The always fabulous Rachel Dunville reminded me of another upcoming show by an SVA MFA grad. Shai Kremer's solo show at Julie Saul Gallery opens April 10.

Washington Project for the Arts Auction This Friday

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Benjamin, 2007 © Erika Larsen

This Friday the Washington Project for the Arts is holding it's 2008 Art Auction Gala. The WPA auction has a different format than most in that they invite people from the art world to curate the artists selected for auction. I was very honored to have Sarah Kennel, the Assistant Photography Curator at National Gallery of Art, ask me to donate a piece from my Domesticated series. Sarah clearly has great taste and a fabulous eye because she also selected Erika Larsen, An-My Lê, Lori Nix, Zoe Strauss and Shen Wei.

Even if you don't have tickets for the big event you can still support the WPA by registering and bidding online. In addition to the stellar curatorial work of Miss Kennel, be sure to check out pieces curated by Heather Darcy Bhandari of Mixed Greens and Marc and Sara Schiller of the Wooster Collective.

American Photo's Top Emerging Photograpahers

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The current issue of American Photo features their selection of the top fifteen emerging photographers and I made the list. Needless to say, I am very humbled by my inclusion with such a fabulous group of talented photographers. Also making American Photo's list of the "new generation of photo pioneers": Shen Wei, Donald Weber, Mikhael Subotsky, Jason and Carlos Sanchez, Steven Laxton, Alexandra Catiere, Matt Eich, Camille Seaman, Lyric Cabral, Jehad Nga, Michael Christopher Brown, and Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard. Be sure sure to pick up a copy of the November/December issue on newsstands now. Or you can ask me for a copy. I believe I've cleaned out most of the inventory below 23rd Street.

November/December issue of American Photo

I'm also featured in an Apple Aperture advertorial in the same issue of American Photo.

Aperture advertorial in American Photo

This has been a good month for me and magazines. I was included in an October photography edition of Zeit magazin Leben. Zeit magazin Leben is the weekend magazine of Germany's largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Watering Hole, an image from my Domesticated series, was featured in their "Around the World in 80 Photographs" edition that included works by twenty-five other photographers including Pieter Hugo, Hiroshi Watanabe, and Alec Soth. Good company indeed.

October issue of Zeit magazine Leben

Covers of American Photo and Zeit magazine Leben

Oh, That Shen Wei

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Shen Wei Dance Arts

The 2007 MacArthur Fellowship 'genius grants' were announced yesterday and I nearly spit my coffee on my keyboard when I read the name Shen Wei listed as one of the recipients. Holy crap! Did my good friend Shen just get access to a cool half million to spend as he pleases? I was excited for Shen, but I was really excited for me because I thought for I would be getting a call any second inviting me to a celebratory dinner at Nobu. On Shen, of course.

I quickly went to the MacArthur site and learned it was Shen Wei the dancer, not Shen Wei the photographer. Damn it all.

(Shen, you can still take me out to dinner--it's the genius thing to do.)

Griffin Opening Recap

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© Colin Blakely

This past Thursday, Shen, Natasha, and I made the journey up to Winchester, MA, for the opening of the 13th Annual Griffin Museum Juried Show. Any time I am covering that much ground on the highways I take along my tripod and the RZ just in case there are some stranded motorists along the way. I am always looking to fill out the series and I was secretly hoping to show off my process to my driving companions. We pulled over twice, but I got a very rare 'no' in the first situation and in the second situation the family had pulled over so their child could pee in a traveling kiddie porta-potty. Oh well.

We arrived at the Griffin Museum, which looked like sweet ginger bread house nestled in an upscale Boston suburb, and met the curator, Paula Tognarelli. After the members and the ever dapper juror, Brian Clamp, arrived, four of the photographers in the show gave presentations on their work. I talked about my process, influences, and took the members through the stories behind each of the five images in the show. My presentation generated so much enthusiasm and so many questions about the Domesticated series, I almost felt sorry for sad sucker who had to follow me. Wait, that sad sucker was Shen. No worries, he did a fabulous job with his presentation, too.

That night I had many a great conversation with members of the Boston arts community and saw a ton of amazing work. Mr. Clamp did a great job of selecting work from the over 2000 photos submitted for entry. Highlights for me included pieces by Shen Wei (of course), Dylan Chatain, Dina Kantor, Daniel Traub, and a real stunner by Colin Blakely.

The whole affair wrapped up around 10 PM and Shen and I made the tactical decision to drive back to New York. We said our goodbyes to Natasha and hit the road. To Boston and back in the same night? Crazy? You bet. But, that's how we roll.

Griffin Museum Juried Show Opening Thursday

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© Shen Wei

I will be on the road again tomorrow traveling all the way to Winchester, MA, for the opening of the Griffin Museum of Photography's 13th Annual Juried Show. My traveling companion this time will be good friend, Shen Wei. I'm hoping he understands when I pull over to photograph stranded motorists along the way.

The Griffin show will feature a number of pieces in the Main Gallery and a two person show in the Emerging Artists Gallery. My Domesticated work will be featured in the two person show. All the work presented in both galleries was judged worthy by this year's juror, the inimitable Brian Clamp.

Prior to the opening Shen, Nicholas Fedak II, David Wolf, and I will all be participating in a gallery talk with museum members.

Here are the details:

13th Annual Griffin Juried Show
August 23 through October 28, 2007
Griffin Museum of Photography
67 Shore Road
Winchester, MA 01890

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 23, 7 PM
Member Gallery Talk: Thursday, August 23, 6:15 PM - 7 PM

If you are in the Boston area, please stop by the opening and say hi.

Photographer Googlegangers

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Mike © Amy Stein (not me)

If you know Brian Ulrich then you know he performs smooth jazz the way you like it. Perhaps you know about Brian's ministry that serves up the word with sweet and easy saxophone music.

Oh, wait. Did you think I was talking about Brian Ulrich, the godless photographer from Chicago who beatifies his dark photo lord with an evil ritual of BMX, anti-consumerism, and gut wrenching guitar salvos? It's an easy mistake if you are like every other person in the world and use Google as your entry point for any and all information.

Brian Ulrich meet Brian Ulrich. You are brethren in name and in search results. You are Googlegangers.

I have my own Googlegangers. For many years when you searched my name there was a good chance that the first results would be for Santa Fe based artist and healer, Amy Stein. Or, maybe you would find Amy Stein, the Chairman of Manatee County Board of Commissioners. (Commissioner Amy Stein is currently embroiled in a messy landfill debate.) Still another Amy Stein, the teenage poet, could haunt your Google searches with her lovelorn prose of teenage despondency.

Luckily, my husband is a bit of a online marketing genius and he's managed to push me, the real Amy Stein, to the top of the Google search results. On occasion, I still cross online paths with my Googlegangers in RSS feeds, but my attention of late has been focused on the Internet twins of some of my fellow photographers.

So, let me reintroduce you to Shen Wei, the dancer. Or, how about Nathan Baker, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. How about the ace work of Alison Brady?

I'm curious about your Googlegangers. Have you every reached out through the tubes and introduced yourself?

Viernes Gigante!

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This Friday will henceforth be referred to as Viernes Gigante! Big Friday! A big opening in SoHo and a big closing in Chelsea and me without my roller skates to zip between the two.

First up, the opening for a great show with some top notch photographers curated by two fabulous people.

© Shen Wei

A New American Portrait
Curated by jen bekman + Jörg Colberg
Opening: Friday, June 22, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.
jen bekman gallery
Featuring photographs by Christine Collins, Jen Davis, Benjamin Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Peter Haakon Thompson, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei

© Zoe Strauss

From there it's across town to Chelsea and Silverstein to celebrate the closing of If You Reading This with Philadelphia's third greatest export ever, Zoe Strauss. (Number one is the US Constitution and number two is Dr. J, naturally.)

Zoe Strauss: If You Reading This Closing Party
Silverstein Photography
Friday, June 22, 8:30 p.m.

Should be a great evening with great friends.

Griffin Museum Juried Show

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The winners were just announced for the 13th Annual Juried Show at the Griffin Photography Museum and I was fortunate to be awarded with a two person show in the Griffin's Emerging Artist Gallery. The juror this year was the always wonderful Brian Clamp. Past winners of the two person show include Rachel Papo and Dorthe Alstrup. Talk about being in great company.

It's always nice when you can share the moment with friends, so I was pleased to read that the fabulous Shen Wei and Dina Kantor were selected for the group show in the main gallery.

The exhibition doesn't take place until August 23, so I will post an update as the date draws near.

Meet Me at the Fair

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In case you haven't heard there is a perfect art storm happening in New York this weekend. Pulse, Scope, The Armory Show, LA/Art, ADAA, DiVA...if you love crowds, temporary walls, and booths chock full of marginal art, then rush on down to one of the too many art fairs going on right now in NYC. A quick rundown of the weekend so far:

LA/Art -- Highlights included the Marcel Dzama pieces at Richard Heller and Rachael Papo's print at Paul Kopeikin's booth.

Pulse -- Standout photos by Brian Ulrich, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, and Didier Massard at the Julie Saul booth. I am not a big fan of Massard's fantasy landscapes -- they remind me of Yes album covers -- but I loved the Rhino.

Gurnee, IL © Brian Ulrich 2003

Dinner with Peeps -- Friday night our posse had velocity. We met up with Bill Sullivan, Shen Wei, Amy Elkins, Brian Ulrich, Paddy Johnson, and Kevin Faulkner for some tasty food and some quality post Pulse conversation.

The Armory Show -- One hour lines to pay $20 to see "SHIT" in neon? Oh yeah! Contemporary photography not represented well in the big show, EXCEPT Pieter Hugo's work at the Michael Stevenson booth. I think we are going to make the big leap and buy one of his beautiful prints.

UPDATE: We just bought this Hugo print! Woohoo!!

Morris Toe, Monrovia, Liberia © Pieter Hugo 2006

5 Things Meme Tag...I'm It

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Brian "Pegboy" Ulrich has called me out with a '5 things meme' blog chain letter challenge. Well, world, this is the unknown me:

Queen of Leisure: I was the youngest ever resident of the assisted living paradise that is Leisure World. They enforce a strict over-55 age policy, but I managed to skirt the law for a few months to take care of my father. While there I made extra cash working ham salad duty at Honey Baked Hams.

Hot Dog: I am card carrying member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) and had dreams of being the first woman to battle the mighty Kobayashi for the Coney Island hot dog crown. My gurgitator dreams were dashed with the sudden rise of the Black Widow, Sonya Thomas, and my own fears about the potential rise in my cholesterol level.

Camp Nerd: For three straight summers during the 80s I attended Champlain College Computer Camp. You can't get much more nerdy than a summer of canoeing, smores, and FORTRAN.

Just Say Whoa, Man: Selected as my high school's representative for a "Just Say No" conference at the White House with Nancy Reagan. Attended the event and met with Nancy and Ronnie while nursing a vicious hangover.

That's My Cookie: My husband is a Girl Scout! Seriously.

I'll tag: Shen Wei, Jen Bekman, Shane Lavalette, Lisa Hunter, and Amy Elkins

Hey! Shen Wei is a Hot Shot

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© Shen Wei

Jen Beckman Gallery has announced the winners of the Fall 2006 Hey, Hot Shot! competition and a big "huzzah!" is due to my very talented friend, Shen Wei. Shen, I know you are a super famous photographer now, but I still want to trade for the image above.