Full Spectrum @ Adelaide College of the Arts

Some BTS shots and gallery views of Full Spectrum at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide College of the Arts. Apologies I shot all of these with my iPhone.

The catalogues arrive.

Double page image spreads.

Installation view #1.

L: Joe Felber R: Will Nolan - Framing some of Joe's work.

Installation view #2.

Will Nolan @willy_golden documenting the exhibition.

Will Nolan The Greatest, 2011.

Joe Felber

Installation view #3.

Installation view #4.

Light Square Gallery.

Gregory Ackland - Heaven, Man and Earth

The second body of work showing in Full Spectrum at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide College of the Arts. This series is titled 'Heaven, Man and Earth'.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #1, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #2, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #3, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #4, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #5, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland, Heaven, Man and Earth: Arrangement #6, 2011.  75cms x 50cms. Digital C-Print.

Gregory Ackland - Slowed Breath

I currently have two bodies of new work showing in Full Spectrum at Light Square Gallery, Adelaide College of the Arts. This series is titled "Slowed Breath' and was shot in the Victorian Alps.

Gregory Ackland, Slowed Breath: Snowblind, 2011. 100cms x 67cms Archival inkjet print.

Gregory Ackland, Slowed Breath: The Brightening, 2011. 100cms x 67cms Archival inkjet print.

Gregory Ackland, Slowed Breath: The Disrupt, 2011. 100cms x 67cms Archival inkjet print.

Gregory Ackland, Slowed Breath: The Solace, 2011. 100cms x 67cms Archival inkjet print.

Gregory Ackland, Slowed Breath: Vacuum, 2011. 100cms x 67cms Archival inkjet print.

FULL SPECTRUM

Ellen Kooi - Dutch Photographer

Ellen Kooi is a Dutch photographer working mostly with the landscape and the figure. The relationships between the figures and each landscape vary from the magical to the mundane, however what is most interesting is considering how they collectively build to a point that makes you question what is going on for us as the viewer, and further, what exactly is it that Kooi is piecing together here? For me there's something of those strange dreams you tend to have very early in the morning, where things don't quite make sense - and they don't necessarily need to, because there is something beautiful going on - it's a strange void space of timeless slow-motion and quietude. There is this sublime and romantic sensitivity evident in each of Kooi's pictures that captivate me. There's a beautiful sense of stillness, of symmetry and order, of careful construction. They are wonderfully formal, eerily quiet and deeply moving pictures. If you enjoy these pictures as much as I do then click here to see more of her work.

Zwammerdam-kas, 2005. 77 x 150 cm

Velserbroek-de brug, 2000. 66 x 150 cm

Noordoostpolder-polderhuis, 2004. 90 x 112 cm

Olek: Anything But Camouflage

Wow!
Great sense of colour and interpretation of objects, spaces and actions. I'm really enjoying this work - thank you to Artlog for bringing this to my attention. I felt the need to share this.

Olek with Naomi White, Intimate Friends, 2010. Courtesy of Christopher Henry Gallery.

Olek is Polish-born, Brooklyn-based artist Agata Oleksiak (“Olek”). Click here to read Cassandra Young's explanation of Olek's work on Artlog.

Olek at New York's Festival of Ideas for the New City

Matthew Gafsou, ReGeneration2

I'm really enjoying these pictures by Swiss photographer Matthew Gafsou. His work appears in Aperture's ReGeneration2 book and is beautiful.

I'm particularly taken by the awe inspiring beauty of his ALPES series, but you should spend some time looking through his body of work. Very high quality stuff with a wonderfully subdued colour palette.

I've been pining to shoot snowscapes for the last couple years (finding this difficult to achieve in Australia - our last winter was pretty late - now looking at travelling o/s to shoot those ideas).

Click here to see more.

What's Next? A Search into the Future of Photography

Copied this section of a conversation between Charlotte Cotton (Curator and Department Head of Photographs at Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Aaron Schuman on Foam's website - furthering the discussion around what photography is now - and possibly where its going. I felt that this idea of democratizing photography was worth bringing to the fore. 


CC: …I think that we're finally getting over the notion that photography is democratic.

AS: Could you explain why you think that photography is not democratic?

CC: One way that you could define photography in terms of democracy is that anyone can make a picture; billions are made every year, so it's clearly very easy, and I'm happy to admit that photography is very democratic in terms of its rendering.  But as a meaningful cultural force it should not be described as being democratic, because culture is a process of defining what's good - what's resonant - and that's not determined by a democratic or even an empirical system.  So I'm not happy with the idea that, just because it's easy to render a photographic image, anyone can make a great, culturally resonant photograph.  Those processes are not democratic; at some point there is an elitism involved, and I think that such elitism is only a problem if you think in terms of its high-art version, in which there are millions of reasons why you might not be allowed entry into that world.  But a group of people who all really get the same thing - whether its photography, or music, or skateboarding, or whatever form of collective culture - if that's elitist, it's in an entirely different league.  It's about self-elected elitism rather than the elitism of an establishment.

The point regarding elitism is an interesting one to me; one that I find personally challenging as I've come to feel that the language of photography and indeed of the image has become sullied since the advent of digital. There are simply too many pictures to sift, we need to filter and spend time in front of pictures again to begin to truly understand them or at the least, engage with them. If it is elitist to say that a picture should be considered, timely and should sit separated from the junkflow of modern media then I agree. I believe that we should be taking the time to edit our images and to be very selective in what we publish/exhibit. 

If we are to continue to produce pictures that can embody cultural values and suggest a certain thoughtfulness, or conceptual playfulness then restraint in publishing is key.

Enough ranting for now - I need coffee. What are your thoughts on this and have you been following the Foam 10th Anniversary: What's Next? A Search into the Future of Photography?

Matthew Cusick - Map Works

Amazingly beautiful, stunningly clever collage works! Bravo Matthew Cusick. See these "Map Works" and more here. You really can't appreciate the beauty of these until you see the detail images on his website. Make time in your day to check out his work. "Birds of Fire, 2009" in the video section is also worth the time to watch - complex layered projection/installation work - really well executed.

Red & Blue, 2010. Maps, book pages, ink on panel. 20 x 23in

Geronimo, 2007. Maps and atlas pages on wood panel. 30 x 24in

Geronimo, 2007 - Detail.

Bonnie, 2004. Maps on wood panel. 42 x 60in.


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Inka & Niclas

Fantastic work - this time from Sweden. Inka Lindergârd & Niclas Holmström are a photographic duo from Stockholm, Sweden who are represented by Elva Gallery.
Their works offer a unique and playful insight into the way they experience the world around us.
Check out these images from my favourite set "Humans Watching Humans" a series they have been creating since 2008.