Rita Bernstein: Out of Place

Please join us Saturday, June 2, from 6 – 8 p.m. for the opening of Rita Bernstein: Out of Place. The exhibition will run through Saturday, September 1, 2012. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

Journey: mixed media (photograph on handmade paper with beeswax and oil paint) 9 x 9 inches, Ed. of 5

 

Rita Bernstein began photographing after working nearly two decades as a civil rights lawyer, eschewing her legal career in favor of time with her two children. As such, her work explores the sorrows and sweetness of family life and, more generally, the ambivalence that shadows intimate relationships. Though her subjects tend to be younger individuals, Bernstein’s intent is not specifically to examine childhood. Rather, it is the uninhibited behavior of children that reveals, in a broader sense, the complexities of the human psyche.

Charmaine: hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi, 10 x 11.5 inches, Ed. of 15

 

As a self-professed “reluctant traveler,” Bernstein shoots most of her photographs close to her Philadelphia home or near her family’s summer cottage in the northern stretches of Pennsylvania. In difference to staged photography she chooses to work intuitively, discovering rather than orchestrating her compositions. While some of her subjects are strangers, she prefers shooting those whom she knows well, resulting in works of increased intimacy, honesty and subtlety.

Lake Swim (hand applied silver emulsion on Japanese gampi, 10 x 10 inches, Ed of 15)

 

Bernstein’s work has received notable international acclaim, having been featured in publications ranging from LensWork to B + W Magazine (UK) to The Philadelphia Inquirer. In addition to print features, her photographs can be found in collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Johnson and Johnson World Headquarters Corporate Collection, among others.

Still Lives: mixed media (photograph on handmade paper with beeswax and oil paint) 9 x 9 inches, Ed. of 5

 

For the complete catalogue of Out of Place, please visit our exhibition page here.

A Photographic Mother's Day

 

A Happy Mother's Day to all of our blog readers out there!  In celebration, enjoy a selection of appropriately themed photographs … and then call your mother!

Elliot Erwitt: Mother and Child, New York City

 

Ida Wyman: Mama, Papa, Billy

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Edward Steichen: Mother and Child – Sunlight

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Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother

 

Gordon Parks: Mother and Child, Harlem

 

Martin Elkhort: Where's Momma

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Ruth Orkin: Mother and Baby

 

Rita Bernstein: Expecting

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Susan Burnstine featured in the San Francisco Weekly

 

This week's Arts section of the San Francisco Weekly has a wonderful review of the work of Susan Burnstine, whose photographs were featured here at the John Cleary Gallery in her Within Shadows exhibition this past Fall.

The Last Goodbye

Author Jonathan Curiel writes:

"Burnstine uses special homemade cameras, with odd lenses and other makeshift parts, to distort her photos at the point of conception. Her images almost seem like mirages. Edges are blurred or out of focus, and the photos' central subjects — whether buildings, vistas, corridors or people — are also bathed in translucence. Few if any other fine-art or commercial photographers do work like Burnstine's."

(Full article)

Yearn

 

For more information about Susan's work or her 2011 Prix de la Photographie Paris award winning book, Within Shadows, contact us here at the John Cleary Gallery!

Congratulations Mitch Dobrowner: 2012 Sony World Photographer Award Winner

 

We are very pleased to announce John Cleary Gallery photographer, Mitch Dobrowner, has been awarded the 2012 Sony World Photographer award for his Storm series.

Jupiter, Mobridge, South Dakota, 2011

 

In a selection process that began with over 100,000 applicants from 171 different countries from across the globe, Mitch's stunning images blew away the competition to nab the $25,000 price along with Sony's most recent digital imaging equipment.

Mammatus, Texline, Texas, 2011

 

W.M. Hunt, chairman of the judging committee, had these kind words to say of Mitch and his work:

There is enormous pleasure in the jury's selection of Mitch Dobrowner because he is the best of what is classic and what is contemporary in photography.

He brings a sense of its history and enormous skill in his craft while pushing his imagination and, even, physical strength. The work offers a visceral rush while being wonderfully well made. I think he is an exceptional choice.

Mesocyclone, Valentine, Nebraska, 2011

 

Born and raised on Log Island, New York, Mitch began his photography career the moment his father gave him an old Argus rangefinder.  At the age of twenty one he quit his job and toured the American Southwest, finding inspiration in the limitlessness of the natural landscapes and the photography of artists like Ansel Adams and Minor White.  It is no wonder then that Mitch's work exudes a reverenced solemnity for the American vistas in his landscape portraits and the tumultuous elegance of the elements in his Storm series.

For the full announcement, please click here.

A Photographic Arbor Day

 

The last Friday of April is set aside annually in celebration of National Arbor Day, a holiday which encourages the planting and caring for of trees and other foliage.  According to our good friend, Wikipedia, it originated in Nebraska during the early 1870's and has since spread to a global level.

What better way to celebrate the greenest of holidays with a vertically integrated product: trees make paper, photographs are printed on paper, photographs on paper look FABULOUS on your walls!  See the logic there?

So in honor of the 140th Arbor Day here is a small forests' worth of the photography world's best trees!

Mitch Dobrowner: Wind Swept Tree

 

 

Maggie Taylor: Oh, Happy Day!

 

Jerry Uelsmann: Untitled, 1969

 

 

Josef Hoflehner: Elephant Hill Pathway

 

Jeffrey Conley: Snow Covered Branches

 

Takeshi Shikama: Central Park #21

 

Jeri Eisenberg: Magnolia, No. 9

 

 

Susan Burnstine: Forever

 

Brett Weston: Holland Canal

Niniane Kelley: Palm

 

 

Charles Grogg: Bonsai (Juniper)

 

 

Jefferson Hayman: Tree, Central Park

 

 

Keliy Anderson-Staley: Plum Tree

 

David Fokos: Haybales, Ripsa, Sweden

 

Henry Gilpin: Trees, Reflection

Dan Burkholder: Tree in April Snow, Catskills

 

Pine-ing for any of these images?  Don't have a collection and looking for one to take root?  Already have one but looking to branch out?  Want me to stop with these ridiculous tree jokes? Don't be such a crabapple! Come into the John Cleary Gallery or give us a call and we'd love to help find that perfect photograph for you.

Dan Burkholder: A Gold Standard

 

Please join us Saturday, April 28, from 6 - 8 p.m. for the opening of Dan Burkholder: A Gold Standard.  The exhibition will run through Saturday, May 26, 2012.  The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

Trees in April Snow, Catskills

 

Dan Burkholder was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology, having originated the digital-negative process in the early 1990's. Melding his unique vision with mastery of both the wet and digital darkrooms, Burkholder went on to pioneer the use of platinum/palladium prints on vellum over 24k gold leaf.  Combined together, the membrane-like translucency of the vellum and iridescence of the gold leaf imbue Burkholder's already beautiful images with a uniqueness all to their own.

Newburgh, Beacon Bridge Over Hudson

 

As an innovator in the field, Burkholder went on to write Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing, an award-winning book that is regarded as one of the most authoritative works in the cannon.  Always one to stay on the forefront of the expanding world of digital photography, Burkholder recently released iPhone Artistry, a step-by-step instruction guide to capturing, processing, sharing and everything else you need to know about making beautifully artistic images with your iPhone.

Mexican Cowboy in Village Store

In addition to his photographic and prosaic work on the subject, Burkholder continuously teaches classes and workshops around the country on the craft of digital photography. He is currently serving on the Advisory Board for the Texas Photographic Society and can count the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the International Center of Photography in New York and the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego among the many institutions with which he has collaborated.

125th Street Station, New York

 

As always, you can get the most up to date information on whatever is happening at the gallery by subscribing to the John Cleary Gallery blog.  Please email us at info@johnclearygallery.com or call us directly at 713.524.5070 for any other questions.

Robert Doisneau at 100

 

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of French photographer Robert Doisneau, and the John Cleary Gallery blog is pleased to offer a small retrospective of some of his most enduring images.

 

La dame indignee, 1948

 

Valse du 14 juillet, 1949

 

Jacques Prevert au Gueridon, 1955

 

Danse

 

Le menage de monsieur Barre, 1955

 

 

Mademoiselle Anita and Pablo Picasso

 

Le baiser de l'Hotel de Ville (The Kiss), 1950

 

Even Google is getting in on the action, celebrating the photographer's centennial with its very own Doisneau doodle:

 

Striking your French photography fancy?  Give us a call and we'd love to show you our inventory of Doisneau prints or track down any in which you might be interested!