Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Posted: 18 Nov 2015 05:00 AM PST

Jump Rope (Vanessa Matir, The Little Girl in the Blue Shorts) June 1983 © Meryl Meisler 1983
Meryl Meisler: In June of 1983, I photographed what appeared to be an extended family and neighbors hanging out in front of a small brick apartment house on Palmetto Street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. It was a building I walked past nearly every day on my way to and from school. The light ochre bricks of the façade are graffiti covered with brown and black spray paint of names like Jose, Rafael and other tags. A woman sits with her carriage and toddlers on the stoop. An older woman looks towards younger women with their carriages and toddlers. A woman sitting on a garbage can looks towards the direction of the camera. A white haired man wearing T-shirt peers out of the ground floor window, stares directly at the camera lens. There’s a little girl in the foreground joyfully on her tippy toes tossing one end of a jump rope, the jumper and other person turning the rope are out of view. A young dark hair pony tailed girl, wearing a blue halter tope and shorts, has her back to the camera, she’s looking toward the grandmotherly figure. More people in the adjacent building peer towards the camera. It looks like a happy scene.
I printed and exhibited that work for the first time ever in December 2011 for my solo show “Bushwick In The 80s” at Soho Photo gallery. It reminded me of a friend’s building in Soho.
In February 2012, I received an email from a woman who saw the image in an online review of the exhibit. She, Vanessa Mártir, was the little girl at age 7 in the blue shorts whose back was to the camera. That was her extended family and neighbors on the street.
The little girl in the blue shorts, Vanessa, grew up to become a writer and was working on her memoir about growing up in Bushwick and had just finished writing a chapter about the white haired man hanging out the window, the man who repeatedly molested her as a child.
Vanessa and I decided to meet. We connected immediately, something special in the universe brought us together. My photographs depicted her childhood. Her stories brought voice to my photos. We knew on the spot we wanted to collaborate, exhibit my photographs with her stories. Just as miraculously, we answered a call for a new Bushwick gallery looking for underrepresented artists interested in education and community – The Living Gallery. The gallerist Nyssa Frank immediately agreed to give us a show, the first for her gallery, opening June 2012 for Bushwick Open Studios. Our exhibit, “Defying Devastation: Bushwick In The 80s” received rave reviews, most notably from Holland Cotter in The New York Times.
A friendship was forged, and we collaborated on a 2nd show “Bushwick Then & Now” at The Living Gallery in 2013. We’ve encouraged each other’s book and personal projects. Her essays are include in A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick and she performed at the opening reception for Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City. My photos have accompanied several of her published essays, include some that refer to the Jump Rope photograph, published here and here.
We will collaborate again in the future, that is for sure.
The universe, and a photograph, brought Vanessa and I together. It changed both our lives and work for the better, and forged a solid friendship. Vanessa’s work with memoir helped me realize my photography is memoir. The power of that photograph reinforced my own belief in the spiritual nature of photography. For a split second in time, a photographer and “subject” paths cross and connect with a click, a passing moment that inherently effects both their lives and communicates a message, a small voice, to the world.
Here is an interview about my new book Purgatory & Paradise by Vanessa Mártir
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Portrait of the artist with Vanessa Mártir
Meryl Meisler is the author of two photography books “A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick”(Bizarre Publishing 2014) and “Purgatory & Paradise SASSY ’70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre Publishing 2015).
The post The Moving Story of a Street Photographer’s Chance Encounter With a Subject Almost 29 Years Later appeared first on Feature Shoot.

Looking for Artsy Holiday Gifts? Your Art Gallery is Launching a Pop-Up Store in NYC Full of Awesome Prints

Posted: 17 Nov 2015 01:46 PM PST

As established and emerging photographers alike have learned in just the last few years of business, the art world is changing, and with it, art buyers are looking for new and better ways to build their collections. Your Art Gallery is at the forefront of a new photographic movement, innovating fresh and exciting ways to connect its artists with clients around the world.
Unlike most private art galleries, where getting your foot in the door means earning the favor of a few of the art world’s elite, Your Art Gallery is an online community that fosters support between a wide network of international photographers. The gallery operates based on a simple star rating system, meaning that members can get direct and unbiased feedback from thousands of experts and peers. This way, work is prioritized based solely on merit rather than connections or favoritism.
In keeping with its commitment to nurturing and cultivating the skills of its artists, Your Art Gallery has introduced YAG University, a community-based blog dedicated to sharing expertise, important news stories affecting photographers, and in-depth articles. One timely article from YAG University, written by Staff Writer Shawn Johnson, compiles insightful advice from outstanding photographers on how to revamp your portfolio and maximize sales during the holiday season.
The future of photography might be online, but Your Art Gallery also understands the importance of presenting artwork within a gallery setting. On the heels of its successful Photoville debut a few months ago,Your Art Gallery will be opening their first ever Pop-Up Gallery at Duggal Visual Solutions at 29 West 23rd Street in Manhattan, where all Your Art Gallery artworks are beautifully printed by experts with decades of experience and acclaim. Beginning November 19th at 7:00 PM and running until January 31st, 2016, Your Art Gallery Artists in Residence Stephan Kolb, Michael Jinks, Matt Petosa, Cathy Withers Clarke, Jon Stucky,Jason Johnson, Bartlomiej Kut, Jevgenijs Scolokovs, Wally Bilotta, Malike Sidibe, and Marko Radovanovicwill be showcasing their work to the public.
In just the last couple of months, Your Art Gallery has grown to become a premiere destination for photographers, buyers, and enthusiasts, and this holiday season, it’s sure to make quite a splash.
Your Art Gallery is a Feature Shoot sponsor.
The post Looking for Artsy Holiday Gifts? Your Art Gallery is Launching a Pop-Up Store in NYC Full of Awesome Prints appeared first on Feature Shoot.

Photographer Martha Cooper on Shooting Legendary East New York Graffiti Artist DONDI

Posted: 17 Nov 2015 07:00 AM PST

On June 26th, Feature Shoot hosted the second edition of The BlowUp, a new quarterly event in which we ask a selected group of remarkable photographers to each tell the stories behind one of their favorite images. This time, theme was Subcultures, and Martha Cooper her famed shot of the now-legendary East New York-based Graffiti King DONDI straddling parked trains. This was the 1970s, when the neighborhood could be described, as she put it, as resembling a “war zone,” but she found within it flourishes of creativity and spontaneity. Through a group of kids, she learned the ins and outs of graffiti art, how people sign signatures, assign nicknames, and make their mark. As it happened, DONDI knew exactly who she was when they met, and after building a friendship, she was allowed to sneak into the yard alongside him and to photograph him at work, immersed in his craft.
The next BlowUp event will take place on the evening of December 10, 2015 at ROOT (Drive In) from 6:30-9:00 PM, and this time, the theme will be photography that has gone viral. We have some incredible photographers lined up to speak including Sophie Gamand, Arne Svenson,Caroline Tompkins, Victoria Will, Kristine Potter, and Allaire Bartel. More photographers will be confirmed soon, but in the meantime, you can purchase tickets here.
The BlowUp is sponsored by Agency Access.
The post Photographer Martha Cooper on Shooting Legendary East New York Graffiti Artist DONDIappeared first on Feature Shoot.