California On My Mind
I thought I’d share a few images from my recent trip to LA. I was out for Review LA, to visit with a few ad agencies and also catch up with some old friends. I dropped by Photo LA as well, browsing the latest offerings from a number of local and international galleries. Lapis Press and Schaden had a really cool booth with a bunch of unique photo books and an impressive project called the La Brea Matrix spurred by an iconic Stephen Shore image. The Rose Gallery was showing a number of beautiful and very large Elger Esser prints as well as signed copy of William Eggleston’s Guide that I would have loved to take home. Also on display was one of my favorite images by Hiroshi Watanabe and a couple very cool amorphous flock of birds prints by Richard Barnes.
Regarding Review LA: this being my first portfolio review I could only guess what the experience would be like, but I have to say it scarcely could have been better. It goes without saying that if you’re not open to hearing criticism (especially at this early stage) then a portfolio review isn’t a worthwhile way to spend your time. However, I was ready and excited to hear from others how I might improve, refine and develop some of my latest work, a fair amount of which hasn’t even graced this very blog. As a result, I found it was eye-opening and inspiring to look more objectively at my own work.
Amidst all this introspective evaluation and shoe gazing, the most enjoyable part of the weekend was getting the chance to meet and spend a little time hanging out with some of the other photographers in the hotel lobby, where everyone was killing time between reviews chatting and checking out each other’s work. In particular, I got the chance to hang out a bit with Liz Kuball during the public showing at Photo LA. She was at Review LA showing her beautiful California Vernacular project. I had seen an image or two of hers floating around places like 20×200, so it was cool to see so much more of the collection in person. I also got to meet and talk with Susan Worsham who’s Some Fox Trails in Virginia is lovely and quietly unsettling in a wonderful way, as well as Sarah Windels and Andrew Ti. All in all there was a lot of work to see and some cool new people to keep up with.
[...] reason missed this photograph’s recent appearance right here on my own blog, check it out here. Posted under News, Photography SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Flak!", url: [...]