PHOTO IN PHILLY.PhotoSession 99 Philadelphia Ethical Society Philadelphia, Pennsylvania November 6, 1999 KATHERINE SCHOENFELDER As with most conferences, Philadelphia's "PhotoSession 99" touched on a wealth of topics but left synopsis A summary; a brief statement, less than the whole. A synopsis is a condensation of something—for example, a synopsis of a trial record. for audience members. The selection of speakers was commendably broad: Eric Mencher, a staff photographer for the Philadelphia Inquirer Philadelphia Inquirer Morning newspaper, long one of the most influential dailies in the eastern U.S. Founded in 1847 as the Pennsylvania Inquirer, it took its present name c. 1860. It was a strong supporter of the Union in the American Civil War. who has covered top news stories around the globe; John Schlesinger, an art photographer and educator; Noah Greenberg, a freelance photographer specializing in magazine portraiture portraiture, the art of representing the physical or psychological likeness of a real or imaginary individual. The principal portrait media are painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography. From earliest times the portrait has been considered a means to immortality. ; Susan Arthur Whitson, an art historian and former New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. gallery director; and Eileen Neff, a photo-based installation artist. A number of supporting events were organized in conjunction with the conference including a digital workshop, a juried photography show, a historical talk with author Jay Ruby Jay Ruby (1935- ) is an American scholar who was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Temple University until his recent retirement. He received his B.A. in History (1960) and Ph.D. in Anthropology (1969) from the University of California, Los Angeles. and Stephen Perloff, editor of the Photo Review, and a benefit auction. In panning through their slide carousels, each photographer essentially presented the audience with an edited contact sheet of his or her work. In starting off the morning's proceedings, Mencher described his unsatiated urge to understand the human condition through the viewfinder The preview window on a camera that is used to frame, focus and take the picture. On analog cameras, the viewfinder is an eye-sized window that must be pressed against the face. Point-and-shoot digital cameras use small LCD screens that are viewed several inches from the eyes. . Incessantly shooting and traveling around the globe, he described his quest to record what he refers to as the homespun "Academy Award Winners" he encounters everywhere. Schlesinger followed with a remarkably different tale as he described how he works with double exposures and sliced negatives to create rather than shoot the perfect picture. Greenberg rounded out the commercial end of the spectrum with his presentation of published images of jazz musicians This is a list of jazz musicians on whom Wikipedia has articles. Some of the most notable jazz musicians
After lunch, Whitson described her adventures at Sotheby's and the Robert Miller Gallery. She answered difficult questions regarding the distinction between amateur and fine art photography, and whether it is trends or the great images that dictate collecting. Neff discussed her installations at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art, established in 1875, chartered in 1876. When the city of Philadelphia planned to erect a building to house the Centennial Exposition of 1876, provision was made to keep the building permanently occupied; the Pennsylvania Museum and School and other galleries. While most speakers focused primarily on their own personal experiences, Schlesinger delved into larger questions regarding motivation, method and style in creating images. He focused on how the established ideas about creating images can unconsciously become repressive re·pres·sive adj. Causing or inclined to cause repression. . Describing an early breakthrough, Schlesinger related to the audience how he came to use double-exposed appropriated film images. He admitted that although this was not a novel technique, the experience taught him the possibilities created by altering just a single variable in one's photographic routine and urged the photographers in the audience to shake up their comfortable working methods. In his remarkable breadth of work-double-exposed appropriations, images mounted on saw blades (deviating from the standard rectangular frame), images where visual and textual elements serve as equals, documentary landscape photographs--Schlesinger has continually reinvented what he defines as his "style." While showing his work, he emphasized how self-a ppointed projects provide a framework for personal motivation. Schlesinger perhaps unearthed Unearthed is the name of a Triple J project to find and "dig up" (hence the name) hidden talent in regional Australia. Unearthed has had three incarnations - they first visited each region of Australia where Triple J had a transmitter - 41 regions in all. the best conference synopsis: take each of the speaker's topics and you have five new projects on your to-do list KATHERINE SCHOENFELDER currently works as a freelancer in architecture and photography in the Philadelphia area. |
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