The Trail of Spears

Tweet

Saturday we drove north from New Orleans to a small town near the Mississippi border called Kentwood. In better years Kentwood was called the Dairy Capital of the South, but its recent claims to fame include a brick factory and a bottled water that goes by the brand name Kentwood Springs. Oh, Kentwood is also the hometown of Britney Spears and the reason for our trip, the Kentwood Britney Spears and Military Museum. Now, I am not a fan of Britney Spears or military action, but put the two together and you have a recipe for a kitsch pie that I want to eat with an oversized novelty fork.

Museum curator, Hannah M. Schwartz, does a wonderful job of setting a dynamic tone for the tour. She escorts you into a dark room and asks you to wait near a white wall. Don't move away from the wall or Hannah will bristle you back in place to maximize the dazzling impact of what's to come. She disappears into the dark and then with the flip of a switch the first beats of "Oops!...I Did It Again" drop as the lights of a small-scale replica of the stage Britney performed on for her HBO Concert Special come on. The story behind the making of the stage is more fantastic than the stage itself and I urge you to read about it if you can't make your way to Kentwood to hear it in person. After the stage and light show you are lead through a hall of gold and platinum records, autographed posters, Hummel figurines, and some of Britney's lesser awards to a very special place. Kid you not, they have transported Britney Spears' childhood bedroom to the museum and lovingly reinstalled every dirty stuffed animal and doll and every overly sexed junior high school photograph tacked to her full-length mirror. Tragically, Hannah does not allow you to take pictures inside the museum, so Dave LaChapelle's photo of Britney in her bedroom will have to suffice.

© David LaChapelle

We stayed and soaked up the greatness for a while and then headed over to the military wing of the museum. Somehow the images of Kentwood’s war dead wasn't exactly a fitting digestif after the three course sugar fest that was the Britney wing. We decided to grab the RZ and the 5D and explore Kentwood in the hopes of capturing a little bit of the local flavor that spawned America's favorite pop tart. Sadly, most of Kentwood looks like an open casket funeral for William Eggleston's south.

Photos to come soon...

Photo of the Week: Spike and China, Coney Island, NY

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2003

Heckuva Job, George

Tweet

© Rick Wood

This Wednesday I will be traveling back to New Orleans to continue my work with the Do You Know What It Means project. I love everything about New Orleans, so I was taken aback when I came across this troubling bit of news in the Saturday Times-Picayune:

St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., Louisiana's largest commercial insurance provider, plans to cancel all its commercial property policies in the New Orleans area next year, sparking fears that other insurers will follow and slow the region's economic recovery...

State Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, who was tipped off about Travelers' plans Wednesday night by the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region, said he was stunned by the news. When he met with Travelers on Thursday, he was equally stunned by the stated reason for the company's retrenchment.

"They cited the state of the rebuilding of our levee system as the primary reason for their decision," Donelon said.

This is a devastating turn of events for a city and a community that was just beginning to embrace a cautious optimism about their future. That the levees are not reliable should come as no surprise given the White House's own ironically triumphant assessment that "today, almost the entire flood protection system around New Orleans has been restored to its pre-Katrina level."

A Very New York Saturday

Tweet

Most days in New York are uniquely New York. It's a rush and a bump, an odd random smell, and then sweet relief when you finish your work and finally get to go home. There are other days in New York that are equally, uniquely New York. The sun shines, your obligations are few, and you are able to take leisurely allowance of the wealth of exceptional opportunities that are individually New York. Saturday was just such a day.

After a wine indulgent Friday night we rolled out of bed and caught the F train to the 6 train and headed to the galleries on the Upper East Side. First we went to Gitterman Gallery to see the exhibit of Charles Traub's vintage black and white photographs from the 1970s. Charlie is an amazing photographer who is enjoying a small renaissance of popularity with concurrent New York shows at Gitterman and Daniel Cooney Fine Art. The photos at Gitterman are the very best example of what street photography should be: voyeuristic, immediate, and uncomfortably intimate.

© Charles Traub

We then made are way up the street to Skarstedt Fine Art to see Gregory Crewdson's Fireflies exhibit. The Crewdson photos were taken in 1996 and share the same mystical and mysterious qualities as his large scale cinematic explorations of spaceship suburbia, but with Fireflies there is a romance and humanism that is missing from his later work. Do yourself a favor and see these photos.

Later in the evening we traveled down to Tribeca for Charles Traub's holiday party. The evenings festivities were organized around a toy drive for the Delmont Service Center in Baton Rouge and the The Good Shepherd School in New Orleans. Good people, good booze, and a good cause. How can you go wrong?

The party ended and we made our way to the subway for the long journey back to Jackson Heights for some late night street tacos. It was truly a great day in the greatest city on earth.

Photo of the Week: 4th of July, Old Orchard Beach, ME

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2004

Dogs are Biological Freeloaders

Tweet

A couple of nights back I watched a very interesting NOVA special on the genetic and phenotypic evolution of the dog. I am not a dog owner, but the relationship we share with animals fascinates me to no end and has inspired a good deal of my work. My Domesticated series touches on many aspects of human and animal development and how cycles of direct and indirect dependence and conflict shape our evolutionary paths.

The show explained the hows and whys behind the myriad of sizes, colors, behaviors, and degrees of cuteness seen in the modern dog, but the most revelatory nugget was the prevailing theory of how dogs initially became domesticated. The premise they proffered is that "wolves essentially 'chose' domestication when they began to forage for food near prehistoric dumps. There, tameness was an advantage." We often think of ecological and sexual selection being driven by aggressive adaptation traits like being faster, stronger, or more intelligent than the competition, but for the dog timidity and opportunism have been the paths to evolutionary success. As Steven Budiansky puts it, dogs have excelled where wolves have failed by being "biological freeloaders."

© Amy Stein 2006

As civilization continues to intrude on and alter habitat, it's interesting to consider the constancy and malleability of the natural world. Our encroachment and the externalities of our existence are clearly challenging and changing the dynamics of survival. Equally clear is that life will continue to adapt, evolve, and survive. And the most amazing part is that this epic struggle for survival is playing out in real time in your backyard. I hope to explore this idea a little more in future Domesticated work.

Photo of the Week: Hyde Park Drive-In, NY

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tweet

Dinner tonight with Jeongmee and Shen and then I am off to Pittsburgh tomorrow to celebrate our annual holiday of humble and gracious reflection by gorging myself in a frenzy of meat and carbs. Delicious!

This year I am thankful for all the obvious things like health, happiness, my husband, family, friends, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's mother, my cats, the kindness of strangers... But, when 2006 is all said and done, the one thing that will have truly inspired appreciative pause and a joyous “hallelujah!” was the crushing repudiation of the myth of Karl Rove's infallibility. Thank you, America!

Hey! Shen Wei is a Hot Shot

Tweet

© 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.

2006 Photo Benefit Auction at Daniel Cooney

Tweet

© Todd Deutsch

I will be making the long trek home to New York this Monday and heading straight to Daniel Cooney Fine Arts for the Camera Club of New York's 2006 Photo Benefit Auction. I'm looking forward to seeing (and bidding on) work by good friend, Jeongmee Yoon, as well as former SVA student, Max Dworkin, and a piece from Todd Deutsch's stunning Gamers series. See you there!

2006 Photo Benefit Auction
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
511 W. 25th Street, Suite 506
Nov. 20, 7-9pm

Also: While you are at Daniel Cooney don't miss Charles Traub's amazing Indecent Exposure show.

"No Fancy Titles" Opening Reception, Saturday, Nov. 18

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2004

The opening reception for inaugural show at the the Randall Scott Gallery is this Saturday, November 18. If you are in DC and looking for a post election cultural digestif, cruise down to 14th Street and give Randall a big shout from me.

Randall Scott Gallery
1326 14th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20009

No Fancy Titles
Opening Reception:
November 18th, 6pm to 8pm

Photo of the Week: Mormons, Wheaton, MD

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2006

Back in NOLA

Tweet

© Frank Relle

After a whirlwind weekend home in the NYC, I am back in New Orleans working on the Do You Know What It Means project. I had to make the trip to home to attend a wedding and host a "meet the artist" gathering of The Contemporaries in my studio. I love New York to death, but I am beginning to love leaving it more.

New Orleans is an amazing place. The spirit of the city and its inhabitants slowly envelopes you. As you spend more time in the city, speaking with people, wandering through the neighborhoods, tasting the delicious food and taking in the stunning architecture you feel as if you are immersed in a warm soup. I’ve met some amazing people down here. Last week I had dinner at the house of Vanessa and Jeff Louviere, really nice people and talented artists. Ever since I first saw their work at Brian Clamp’s gallery early this summer I’ve been a fan of their eerie and evocative approach to photography.

Another photographer, Frank Relle, has generously driven me all over the city to survey the devastation and search for participants for Do You Know What it Means. In addition to being a great guy Frank is a thoughtful and intelligent photographer. His images of New Orleans houses at night are simply stunning. As anyone who follows the contemporary photography scene knows, dozens of photographers have stampeded through the city since Katrina taking very similar pictures of debris and destroyed and abandoned houses. MAO recently posted an amusing and dead on take on the glut of Katrina images. Frank’s work rises above those attempts. He’s also a class act. Please check out his images if you are not already familiar with them.

David Byrne's Daydream

Tweet

Hello, Mr. Byrne. I am going to make this picture. I will send you a print. Thank you for the inspiration.

Photo of the Week: Charlie with Taxidermied Deer

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2005

New Orleans... Do You Know What It Means?

Tweet

In June of this year my husband and I flew to New Orleans to begin the southern leg of my Stranded series. The series was inspired in part by the live TV images of desperate people stranded on their roof tops in the hours and days following Katrina. We did a six day loop through Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee and I was moved by the scale of the tragedy and the individual stories of lives upended. During our trip I developed a strong connection to that part of the country and to the generous people trying hard just to get back to normal.

When I returned to New York and talked with friends I struggled to communicate the extent of the damage. I would say things like, "think of the biggest natural disaster you've seen and then multiply it by a hundred." Beyond the destruction and tragedy, I also struggled to communicate the strength and resolve of the people I met, the profound sense of community, and the still vibrant cultural imprint within the affected areas. After seeing the photos of Polidori, Jordon, Epstein, Wilkes, Alt, et al. that detail the aftermath of the hurricane and flood on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast I had a strong fear that these images of ruin could become the prevailing and lasting memory of the community and people that were, and remain, the cultural soul of this country.

Switch to six months later...

I have taken a few months off from my photography to go back to New Orleans and coordinate the Do You Know What It Means project. DYKWIM is a web based initiative to document and archive pre-Katrina life in the Crescent City. Charles Traub, co-founder of the project, has done an amazing job making this a true collaborative effort bringing together the School of Visual Arts (my alma mater), the SVA Alumni Society, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the National Park Service, George Mason’s Center for History and New Media, the University of New Orleans, and too many others to mention. We will focus on the most effected areas of the city, both residential and commercial, in an effort to recreate and rebuild community in areas devastated by the hurricane and flood. The project will collect and archive old images, family snapshots, video footage, and documents that describe and celebrate everyday life in New Orleans before Katrina. The hope is the archive will result in a virtual representation of New Orleans that will in turn help bring a scattered community back together

I urge you to learn more about the project and get involved if you can.

UPDATE: From the department of like minds... Over at Conscientious, Joerg Colberg ponders the impact of the recent spate of post-Katrina fine art photos.

"No Fancy Titles" at Randall Scott Gallery

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2004

Some of my earlier work, Women and Guns and Halloween in Harlem, will be part of No Fancy Titles, the inaugural show at the Randall Scott Gallery in Washington, DC.

I wish I could make it down to DC for the opening to celebrate the new gallery and, hopefully, the new Democratic majority, but I am in New Orleans for the next month working on the Do You Know What It Means? project. I will write more about DYKWIM later.

No Fancy Titles Details:

Randall Scott Gallery is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition -- No Fancy Titles -- a group exhibition of artists including Catalina Estrada, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Lawrence Gipe, Margot Quan Knight, Amy Lin, Lucy McLauchlan, Amy Stein and Kelly Tunstall

November 18th — December 30th

Opening reception: November 18th 6pm-8pm

Randall Scott Gallery
1326 14th Street NW Washington, D.C. 20009
202-332-0806

Gallery hours: 11am-6pm Wednesday-Saturday

Photo of the Week: Boy with Hummer, Birmingham, AL

Tweet

© Amy Stein 2006

ARTWALK NY 2006

Tweet

Caged, © Amy Stein 2006

ARTWALK NY is one of the great art benefit auctions in the city with the proceeds supporting the amazing work of the Coalition for the Homeless. I was honored to be asked to include a photograph from the Domesticated series in this years silent auction. This is a good opportunity to support a worthwhile organization and pick up work by great young photographers like Keren Moscovitch, Lisa Kereszi, Nicholas Prior, Sarah Schorr and Alix Smith.

Coalition for the Homeless
Coalition for the Homeless is dedicated to the principle that decent shelter, sufficient food, affordable housing, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society. The Coalition provides vital services to over 3,500 New Yorkers each day. We use this frontline experience to advocate for long-term public solutions to mass homelessness that are more humane and cost-effective than current government programs.

ARTWALK NY 2006
Now in its twelfth year, ARTWALK NY has become one of New York City's largest and most anticipated annual art benefit auctions. Each year ARTWALK NY unites artists and art-lovers in an effort to help the homeless men, women, and children living in New York City.

This years ARTWALK NY is co-chaired by Richard Gere, Carey Lowell and Kayce Freed Jennings. The artist honoree will be Julian Schnabel.

WHEN
Wednesday November 29, 2006
6:30PM Silent Auction
8:00PM Live Auction

WHERE
Puck Building
295 Lafayette St

Tickets
$125 - General Admission
$250 - VIP Seating

Selected for the Saatchi/Gaurdian Show in London

Tweet

Greetings from London!

First there were 14,000 artists. Then 300. Then 30.

And now the final 10 have been announced for the Saatchi/Guardian "Your Gallery" competition and yours truly was fortunate enough to get enough votes and be a part of the big show in London.

If you voted for me, thank you. If you are in London, please stop by and see the show.