I can’t think of a parent who doesn’t obsessively photograph their kids. Sure, the photos often are out of focus, include the blur of a finger half-covering an iPhone lens or feel so manufactured-ly happy that we just can’t believe the moments are real, but they’re something we can’t quit.

Even more than whatever meal we feel compelled to immortalize.

For many parents, like photographer Ashly Leonard Stohl, it's a form of self-portraiture - a “portrait of parents” that reflect on how we see ourselves, our fears and reflections of our childhood projected on our children. Stohl’s latest book The Days Are Long & The Years Are Short, published by Peanut Press is the culmination of years of Stohl photographing her kids as a mirror to herself. It's also a response to how the challenges of motherhood are often omitted from public conversation. Stohl’s photos balance the cherished moments with the ones not outwardly discussed. Hunting for a Halloween costume while wearing a disdainful frown. How time can move painfully slow, yet evaporates before our eyes. The moments you don’t see in Parents Magazine.

As a photo-obsessed parent of a one-year-old, I’m drawn to Stohl’s eloquent and honest approach. We spoke to talk parenting and the unfortunate stigma of “Mom Photography".

PostedOctober 18, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Publications, Portfolio, Photobooks

TagsAshly Leonard Stohl, Mom Photography, Documentary Photography, Peanut Press, Days and Years Book, photobooks

The Rust Belt Biennial is looking for new photography made in the region.

The United States’ Rust Belt holds an often overlooked place in American history. Once known as a bastion for steel production, industry in the collection of Northeast cities has been in decline since the 1980s. Once thriving cities have been impacted by economic downturn from technological shifts and companies moving business and production overseas. As one might expect, it’s been a pivotal area during election periods when candidates attempt to reach its disenfranchised, yet voting-heavy population.

Seeing its unique position in American history, curators Niko J. Kallianiotis, Dana Stirling and Yoav Friedlander came up with the idea of hosting a biennial for photography made in the region. The exhibition opens in August at Wilkes University’s Sordoni Art Gallery in two parts: one part artists who have been invited to participate, and an open call juried by photographer Andrew Moore, with a deadline coming up on June 28th.

I emailed with Stirling, Kallianiotis and Friedlander to learn more. We’ve included some of the pre-selected images of the region to give folks a sense of what to expect (and maybe take a hint toward what the curators are looking for!)

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Niko J. Kallianiotis, Dana Stirling, and Yoav Friedlander 

PostedJune 10, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

Tagsphotography opportunity, photography open call, call for work, Rust Belt Biennial, Yoav Friedlander, Dana Stirling, Niko Kallianiotis, New Photography, Documentary Photography, Dave Jordano, Lori Nix, Kathleen Gerber, Ed Eckstein, New American Photography, Michael Froio, Jeffrey Stockbridge, Lauren Davies, Lisa Elmaleh, Lauren Orchowski

Photographer Debi Cornwall's exhibition at Philadelphia Photo Arts unpacks the strange psychology and human experience of Guantanamo Bay through residential and leisure spaces and gift-shop souvenirs.

With the constant turmoil in the world today, one facet of American life that’s largely slipped from view is the United States government's continued imprisonment of people without access to legal counsel, the opportunity to defend themselves at trial, and have often tortured them for over a decade. President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay during his first run, and ten years later, despite our stated withdrawal from Iraq, it still stands. It’s no longer at the level of moral outrage because we’ve allowed ourselves to ignore it. Just as we accept that Flint, Michigan, hasn’t had clean water for four years, we accept that America tortures and harms potentially innocent people in our name.

It was almost serendipitous – the day I went to see Debi Cornwall’s documentary photography show “Welcome to Camp America” at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, I’d just read an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times from Ahmed Rabbani, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay who has been held without trial for fourteen years.

Exhibition review by Deborah Krieger

PostedAugust 9, 2018

AuthorDeborah Krieger

TagsDebi Cornwall, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Deborah Krieger, New Photography, Documentary Photography, Social Documentary Photography, Guantanamo Bay

Boise Idaho is home to a unique population of refugees from The Democratic Population of Congo, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan, Somalia and Bhutan, and many other regions around the world. Since the 1970's, it's been a haven for many immigrant groups, largely because of its low cost of living, and also its high quality of life, and in 2015, Idaho was named one of the most welcoming states for accepting refugees in the entire United States. Many of these refugees barely escaped their home countries, and have gradually rebuilt their lives, contributing significantly to local and national economies despite a previous legacy of trauma and hardship. For more than a year, after receiving a grant from the City of Boise, Los Angeles based (but with deep Idahoan roots) editorial and commercial photographer Angie Smith has been photographing these communities to help tell their story and illuminate the broader refugee experience in the United States. We spoke with Smith to learn more about the project, which she's titled Stronger Shines The Light Inside, and her just-launched Kickstarter campaign which will raise funds to expand it.

PostedApril 19, 2016

AuthorJon Feinstein

TagsAngie Smith Photography, Documentary Photography, Kickstarter Photography Campaigns, Photographer Interviews, Refugees in Boise Idaho, Refugee Photography

Three years ago, photographer Aaron Blum set out to make a series of photographs comparing portraits of Appalachians to Appalachian salamanders. Born in West Virginia, Blum was familiar with the terrain as home to one of the most diverse populations of the species, and envisioned that this might help him understand how geography and environment could influence regional identification. But he soon found this limiting, and his work evolved into his ongoing project A Guide to Folk Taxonomy something much deeper than a literal comparison.

PostedJune 26, 2015

AuthorJon Feinstein

TagsAaron Blum, Aaron Blum Photographer, Folk Taxonomy, Storytelling in Photography, Photographic Storytelling, Narrative Photography, Documentary Photography, Appalachia, Foam Talent 2015, Portrait Photography, Landscape Photography

Ending the Stigma of "Mom Photography"

A New Photographic Biennial (and call for work) Looks to America's Rust Belt

Shedding Light On Refugee Experiences In The United States

Aaron Blum's Brooding Appalachian Mythologies

Ending the Stigma of "Mom Photography"

A New Photographic Biennial (and call for work) Looks to America's Rust Belt

Photography Exhibition Captures the Incongruous Crush of Guantanamo Bay Prisons

Shedding Light On Refugee Experiences In The United States

Aaron Blum's Brooding Appalachian Mythologies