Playing Dress-up in Billy's Room. March 2019. From the series Puberty. © Laurence Philomene — Playing Dress-up in Billy's Room. March 2019. From the series *Puberty*. © Laurence Philomene

Photographer Laurence Philomene’s bright, pastel photographic self-portraiture challenges notions of gender and trans-representation in popular media.

I first encountered Laurence Philomene’s work around 2012, at the height of Tumblr. Looking back, it was one of the first visuals that felt like a reflection of the life, body, or gender I could someday have. I remember being inspired to make photos of myself and my friends, converting closets into makeshift studios with found fabric and wearing outfits and makeup we were not yet ready to reveal to the public eye.

Since then, Philomene has not slowed down — and has gone on to create an incredible archive of images that continue to challenge our notions of gender with joyful, confident, and pastel photos of their community and visions of the world.

Laurence Philomene’s most recent series ‘Puberty’ is an ongoing documentation of their transition on Hormone replacement therapy. Made in Philomene’s signature style and color, these photos not only serve as a beautiful and vibrant document — but ask that we, as trans & queer & non-binary people — be seen as whole and complicated creatures. They are rooted in the vernacular and mundane and allow for a trans narrative and representation outside of the spotlight and the heightened spectacle of visibility that comes with it.

Philomene’s photos are messy, honest, comforting, and vulnerable: an important visualization of daily life to trans folks who have yet to envision or see it reflected back to them. Dishes. Texting. Lounging. Breakfast. Watching TV in bed, awash in a purple haze. The moments before and after a testosterone shot. Crying, with the camera pointed squarely at our face.

June T. Sanders in conversation with Laurence Philomene

PostedOctober 3, 2019

AuthorJune T. Sanders

Tagstrans portraiture, Laurence Philomene, June T. Sanders, New Photography, Staged photography, gender in photography

Photographic typologies can be boring. Serialized to death. A bit too literal or on the nose. (I say this as someone who still loves them, in spite of agreeing with Joerg Colberg’s New Year’s plea to photographers a decade or so ago to "stop making typologies," at least for a while, still can’t get enough of them.) So, when a photographer adds some warmth, digs deeper into the soul of a structure, I want to learn more.

Enter Eirik Johnson, who, since 2010, has been making typologies of seasonal hunting cabins built by the Iñupiat inhabitants of Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Alaska through the extremes of the Arctic summer and winter, which culminate in his new book Barrow Cabins, recently published by Ice Fog Press. The cabins rest on the shores of the Chukchi Sea, part of the larger Arctic Ocean, and are built from a variety of makeshift materials – weathered plywood to old shipping pallets collected from the nearby-decommissioned U.S. Navy Base – whatever is on hand.

Rather than comparing structures purely for their architecture or photographing them under a monotonous, non-descript sky, Johnson’s point of comparison is the light and temperature itself. He describes it as a “meditation on the passage of time.” While on the surface, these photographs might appear to focus on the structures, they feel more like explorations of the emotional capacity of weather, seasons, and the metaphoric hunt for light and calm.

I spoke with Johnson earlier this month as he was preparing for the book’s release. BTW, you should get a copy.

PostedSeptember 26, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesPortfolio, Publications, Artists, Photobooks

TagsEirik Johnson, Barrow Cabins, Ice Fog Press, Alaska Photography, Photographic Typologies, Jon Feinstein

Ian Witlen - Exhibition Model Photos-2805_BW (LOW RES).jpg

The Parkland shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018 – the deadliest in United States History – aroused new concerns about the gravity of gun violence in America. Ian Witlen, a photojournalist called to cover its aftermath for local news outlets, felt an additional sense of trauma when he arrived at the scene because Stoneman Douglas was the same high school he attended years ago. Places he held dear and associated with his own memories and adolescence were now tainted with death, and he was expected to photograph it.

Assignment after assignment added new layers of pain and introspection. As the days and weeks progressed, Witlen began questioning how local media was shaping the story, who was being interviewed, and how their stories were being told. Shortly after, he embarked on an oral histories project, photographing and interviewing survivors, asking them two simple questions: "What was your experience that day?" and "What would you like to see come of it." Much like the Shoah Project and other oral histories series, Witlen’s lens, ear, and microphone help these stories and those whose lives were lost live on and gives viewers deeper insight into an unimaginable event.

In advance of his solo exhibition at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, I spoke with Witlen to learn more about his experience and response to this horrific event.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Ian Witlen

PostedSeptember 10, 2019

AuthorJon Feinstein

CategoriesArtists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Portfolio

TagsIan Witlen, Parkland Shooting Oral Testimonies, photography and death, photography and mourning

I arrived at Cloaca Projects (pronounced clo-ay-ca) on an inconveniently hot Bay Area afternoon with one concern in mind: my phone battery was in the red, and I needed to find a socket to plug into. How ironic, then, that Matthew Kneebone’s A Small Black Could Looking Substance – on view through August 31 – the installation I was there to review takes up our understanding of electricity and how the gadgets it powers shape us and the world we live in.

(Editors note — this is the first piece we’re publishing on Humble with an embedded sound clip. Clap your hands for us, read real slow, and then take the 6+ minutes away from the memes to actually listen to it.)

Exhibition Review by Roula Seikaly

PostedAugust 27, 2019

AuthorRoula Seikaly

CategoriesExhibitions, Artists, Galleries

Tagsmultimedia exhibition, Matthew Kneebone, Roula Seikaly, Cloaca Projects

Hank, 76, and Samm, 67, North Little Rock, AR, 2015. From the series “To Survive on This Shore". © Jess T. Dugan

Humble’s next open call, our final online exhibition of 2019, is as simple as the title suggests. It’s about love, actually.

Around the world, political and social division threatens irreparable damage. Let’s finish out the year with some warmth. Show us love in all forms. Show us empathy. Show us why, right now, despite what pulls us apart, we can come together and have faith in a positive future.

(Bonus if you can find some way to huggingly reference Hugh Grant. Just kidding. Sort of.)

Deadline: September 25th, 2019

PostedAugust 22, 2019

AuthorEditors

Tagsphotography opportunities, open call, photography about love, call for work, photography submissions, humble arts foundation

Laurence Philomene and the Trans Gaze

Eirik Johnson's New Book Captures Arctic Hunting Cabins Through Seasonal Extremes

Ian Witlen's Multimedia Museum Exhibition Captures Oral Testimonies of Survivors of the Parkland School Shooting

Black Clouds and Electric Metaphors: A New Exhibition Unpacks The Power That Shapes Us

Open Call: Group Show 63 – Love, Actually