For our own gesture of photo historical patriotism, we culled some completely random vintage photographs of independence day happenings from the Library of Congress' online photo archives. Many of these are from the Farm Security Administration, others are author-unknown, but all represent our continued obsessive meanderings of online rabbit-holing. Happy 4th, from Humble Arts Foundation.
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.
Posts like these are tricky. Every year, a growing number of MFA photo programs across the country churn out ripe, excited graduates, ready to seek their fortune in a rapidly evolving art market. Some will use their new relationships and refined smarts to stake claim on the art world, while tastemakers and opportunists alike try to predict who’s “hot,” much like taking bids on Etsy or Shake Shack’s recent public offerings. But what excites us most about this year’s ICP-Bard MFA graduates is their commitment to a range of photographic methods. Their work is hip yet thoughtful, and is consistent while rarely exuding a particularly "ICP-Bard" aesthetic. They continue to blur rigid categories, incorporating both process-heavy and straightforward documentary traditions, sometimes in the same series. Without further ado, we've culled together a selection of six standouts from ICP/Bard’s MFA class of 2015.
"The Future of Photography" is a vaguely loaded gun. Curators, ourselves included, love buzzy prompts like "Let's push boundaries," "Show us something new..." and other leading terms that hope for the next big thing. While we'd grandiosely expect every open call to expose us to uncharted ideas, we're keeping this one simple: show us something "F*cked Up."
We'll leave this open to your interpretation. Whether it's a purely mind bending visual experience that leaves us seizing in our studios, or documentary work that pushes into the unknown, we want to see it. Show us photography-based work that will make us blink and twitch like never before. And maybe even lose our lunch.
Rachel Stern's portraits and still-life photographs in highly constructed studio environments swap natural and fabricated scenarios, evoking a panic and confusion in her viewers. Her references include a range of sources, from current pop-cultural icons and drag-queen culture to classical Greco-Roman iconography, fusing high and low culture with seamless ease. Models mimic classical poses; arms, breasts, and other body parts protrude into the frame, and ritualistic symbols sit quietly upon plinths and other surfaces, prodding viewers to question their historical anchor, relationship and relevance. Her pop-up solo exhibition "A Certain Age," presented by Humble Arts Foundation opens this Friday, June 5th at 6pm at The Common in Brooklyn, NY as part Bushwick Open Studios. In advance of her show, we spent some quality internet time with Rachel to get a deeper dive into her work, and the generous individuals who have helped to shape her artistic practice.
