Theater of the Everyday In New York

Manhattan often seems like a stage where performers and exhibitionists of all varieties put on a non-stop show.  I started documenting these “performers” in 2008, as the country slid into a recession.  I needed something to distract myself from the increasingly grim economic news, so I began to seek out small-venue circus acts, magicians and clowns to photograph.  After a few months of photographing organized performances, I started to see theater everywhere: in the streets, in public spaces, in the subway, at festivals where people showed off costumes, in Times Square, at political demonstrations…the spectacle was endless.  I worked with my quiet, discreet Leica camera, photographing in a fluid, fast-moving style that suited the mercurial nature of my subjects.

As an observer who tries to be as inconspicuous as possible, I’m drawn to those brave individuals who display themselves and are able to escape from the constraints of the mundane world, at least for a little while. There was something very old-fashioned about street performers, acts on seedy stages, or wildly costumed individuals in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade that called out for a photographic medium from the pre-electronic age.

All of the photographs were made on black and white film that I processed and printed myself, both for the timeless, classic appearance of that medium and its permanence as a historical record.  Each image is a unique, hand-made object that can never be duplicated exactly, which is a large part of the beauty of traditional black and white photography.

Paul Margolis

Ed Eckstein’s Photo Book “Divided We Stand” Published By Albumen Gallery

From the recent press release, Monalog™ member “Ed Eckstein’s photo book ‘Divided We Stand’ offers a compelling testament to the hostile environment of the 202 US presidential election. Online PR News – 03-May-2021 – London, UK – Alongside the photography exhibition (https://albumen-gallery.com/exhibitions/ee-divided-we-standexhibition/) ‘Divided We Stand’ at London based Albumen Gallery (https://albumen-gallery.com/) Albumen Publishing has published a hardcopy photobook (https://albumen-gallery.com/books/) of the same title. The book features all photos by Ed Eckstein (https://albumengallery.com/ed-eckstein-2/) shown in the exhibition. The Divided We Stand project compellingly documents campaign rallies at various locations in Pennsylvania during October 2020. Pennsylvania – Ed Eckstein’s home state -was one of the battle states that were pivotal in the fight for the White House.”

“Commenting on the Divided We Stand project Ed Eckstein says: ‘A presidential campaign grounded in the politics of division over a toxic mix of passions and polarization. Hopes for a healing process seems right at this moment very unlikely. Sadly, Americans cannot agree on a shared reality, many are in echo chambers consuming information tailored to existing biases. Partisan warfare impels people to deny the legitimacy, even the humanity of those with different viewpoints.”

A Conversation with Monalog™ Member David Haas

On Friday I had the opportunity to have a wide ranging conversation with David Haas. We discuss his living a true photographic life as a college professor, professional fine art silver printer and photographer, who’s images reside in individual, corporate and museum collections. Check it out!

A War Without Blood and Gore: World War II Reenactor Photographs

The title of this project, A War Without Blood and Gore, comes from a line in a Vietnam War-era protest song by the American singer-songwriter Phil Ochs entitled “Draft Dodger Rag.” It goes: “If they ever give a war without blood and gore, I’ll be the first to go.”

I photographed World War II re-enactors at events organized for the public in 2014 and 2015, as well as aboard a restored1944 Liberty Ship wartime freighter – a time frame that roughly paralleled the 70th anniversary of the last year of the war. They used as many authentic period artifacts as possible – weapons, vehicles, uniforms, etc. – to recreate the lives of the soldiers, sailors and aviators who fought in the Second World War.

Most of the re-enactors were men in their 20s and 30s, although there were some women and children dressed in “home front” period clothes or in the uniforms of various women’s military branches; many of them told me of hearing the stories of grandparents who’d been in the war. I got a sense of their longing for those “good” years, for a simpler time, when there was a sharp delineation between good and evil. World War II was perceived as the last war that the U.S. decisively won, when the entire country pulled together in a common existential struggle.

The re-enactors were very knowledgeable about the World War II period and happy to answer questions. They gave various reasons for re-enacting: some wanted to pay homage to the war’s veterans and their sacrifices; others were living history buffs who wanted to bring a past era to life for modern audiences. I also suspected that a number of them liked the camaraderie, the chance to camp out and to fire off guns with blank ammunition in a harmless and more or less socially-acceptable way. It was unsettling to see German uniforms, some of them with SS collar tabs. However, these German-uniformed re-enactors assured me that they didn’t share the philosophy or have any admiration for the Nazis; they felt that somebody had to be the enemy.

I photographed the re-enactors with cameras that would have been used during World War II – 35mm and medium-format rangefinders — and black and white film that I processed and printed myself. I believe that, in many ways, this project documenting re-enactors reflects the present United States, with all of its ambivalences and uncertainties, as much as it recreates the vanished world of the 1940s.

Paul Margolis

Christoper James To Jury The 2021 Photo Review Photography Competition

Christopher James, an internationally known artist and photographer whose photographs, paintings, prints, and alternative process image-making have been exhibited in museums and galleries in this country and abroad will be the juror for the 2021 Photo Review Photography Competition. Christopher is presently University Professor and Director of the MFA in Photography and Integrated Media program at Lesley University College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. He is the author of the widely acclaimed The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes.

The Photo Review, a highly acclaimed critical journal of photography, is sponsoring its 37th annual photography competition with a difference. Instead of only installing an exhibit that would be seen by a limited number of people, The Photo Review will reproduce accepted entries in its 2020 competition issue and on its website. Thus, the accepted photographs will be seen by thousands of people all across the world and entrants will have a tangible benefit from the competition.

Also, the prizewinning photographers will be chosen for an exhibition at Philadelphia’s noted Woodmere Art Museum. Plus numerous Editor’s Selections will be exhibited in several Photo Review web galleries.
Because their work was seen in The Photo Review, past winners have been given one-person exhibitions, have had their work reproduced in other leading photography magazines, and have sold their work to collectors throughout the country.

Awards include a $500 purchase prize for inclusion in the Haverford College Photography Collection, one of the largest and most comprehensive college photography collections in the United States, selected by William Earle Williams, the Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in Humanities, Professor of Fine Arts and Curator of Photography, at Haverford College; a $500 gift certificate for printing at Booksmart Studio; a Wacom Intuos tablet; a Wandrd PRVKE Pack 31 Photo Bundle; a Wandrd PRVKE Pack 21 Photo Bundle; a Pelican Air 1535 Carry-On Case; a $200 gift certificate from Shades of Paper, a leading supplier of inkjet photo paper; a $200 Gift Certificate for Red River paper; a $200 Gift Certificate to Tog Tees; a 24″x50′ roll of Museo Silver Rag; a Think Tank Streetwalker V2 backpack; a Think Tank Retrospective 7 shoulder bag; a 20″x24″ silver gelatin fiber print from Digital Silver Imaging; and a feature on the Laurence Miller Gallery’s Picture of the Week email blast.

The entry fee is $35 for up to three images and $8 for each additional image. In addition, all entrants will be able to subscribe to The Photo Review for $40, a 20% discount. (Higher rates apply for non-US subscribers.)
All entries must be received by May 31, 2021.

You can download contest rules and submit images at www.photoreview.org/competition. For further information call The Photo Review at 215/891-0214, 340 East Maple Avenue, Suite 200, Langhorne, PA 19047, info@photoreview.org.

Jim Fitzgerald Talks About His Current Show and the Making of His Accompanying Fine Press Edition Book

Monalog™ member Jim Fitzgerald takes us for a tour of his current show at LightBox Photographic Gallery in Astoria, Oregon and shows us his incredible accompanying handmade fine press edition book. In Part 1 Jim provides a tour of the show. In Part 2 Jim discussed the making of his book. In Part 3 Jim shows how he developed cabon transfer text for book. In Part 4 Jim continues his discussion on the developing text pages for the book. Enjoy!

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Michael Marks Inclusion in The Halide Project Subjective Processing 2020 Exhibition, Philadelphia, through April 30th, 2021

Michael Marks will have his photograph Memorial Day Parade, 2020 included in The Halide Project’s Processing 2020 Exhibition. The show runs through April 30th.  You can see the sho in person or check it out virtually at https://www.thehalideproject.org/processing2020/

There will be a virtual Public Closing Reception on Monday, April 26th you can attend at https://www.thehalideproject.org/events/processing-2020-virtual-closing-reception/