SANTA BARBARA FILM PICK : JOY
"Writer / Director David O. Russell wraps up his Blue Collar Trilogy starting with, "Silver Linings Playbook", "American Hustle," and now, "JOY". Utilizing the same cast and vibe, to the extent that many of his audience mistook these films as parts one, two and three of the same stories. Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper star in each film and the trajectory, interaction and progression shows. Continuing the zany antics of real people thrust into circumstances that straddle magical realism, a world of woes and the dysfunctional family at it's best and worst, Mr Russell seems to be wrapping up this period in his career and this final entry should make him proud. Prior to this his film, "The Fighter," now a true classic, puts him in a class all his own. The chemistry of the cast members has changed considerably, but the tone, style and overall arching energy remains true to his commitment to storytelling in the great tradition he started long ago."
- Joshua TRILIEGI / BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE
The Santa Barbara Edition
THE ACADEMY AWARDS 2016
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE January 23rd 2016
Film lovers, film critics, film goers, film makers and film aficionados all seem to be giving their opinions, dissertations and criticisms on the lack of diversity at this years Academy Awards. Anyone who is familiar with this publication knows how much we have been influenced by African American Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians and everyday people. From John Coltrane to Spike Lee, from Ice-T to Malcolm X, from Interviews and Essays on Compton Sculptor Charles Dickson, Oakland's JAHI, Leimert Park's Barbara Morrison, Poet Sabreen Shabazz or Baltimore photographer Kanayo Adibe, who is actually from Africa, we at this publication are more diverse than anyone in this publishing game. If you really want to talk about diversity, at least from us, one need only look at my personal commitment to Los Angeles and it's incredible array of nationalities represented in the three year Fiction project entitled, "They Call It They City of ANGELS." I have been watching this controversy unfold and as it unravels, find it is time to join in the conversation.
This is a tough one. For starters, I am from Los Angeles, so I don't have that chip on the shoulder towards the Hollywood elite that taints so much of the National and International dialogue. Nor am I overly impressed with celebrity, we see it everyday, grew up with it, even work with it on occasion. The East Coast film critic's, like A.O. Scott, whom I have always admired and many others, have found it easy to slam, dismiss and criticize the Academy. A simple assessment is any easy way out of actually thinking about and truly wondering what all this is really about. I think this issue deserves more than that. Let's see if we can take this further. Spike Lee has taught many of us, who are not of African dissent what it is like to be, 'Of Color.' Spike has given us some of the best moments ever. To me personally, these are not black moments, these are simply human experiences, but to many, Spike Lee explained what was up. The humor, the sadness, the beauty, the irony, the struggle, the defiance, the pride and the poverty, all personified, in his many films. I should explain that Spike, for many of us looking to make films in the early Eighties, us without money, was very important. How important ? Well, he was so significant to me, that on my first trip to New York City, the first thing I did, was take a cab from the airport directly to his newly opened store and purchased the Forty Acres and a Mule, his production companies name, sweatshirt, which I still own to this day. We studied his books and we knew that, maybe, we too could make films, without much money. Okay, my personal biases have been exposed, you know how long I've been in this, we got that out of the way.
Spike Lee's catalogue is a glossary of life as he knows it with many great moments. I even remember the day, the very day that I saw the film trailer for his first movie, "She's Gotta have IT." Spike is standing on the corner selling, "Three tube socks for five dollars, three tube socks for five dollars, If you don't come and see my movie, I will still be here selling three tube socks for five dollars." I knew then and there, that this dude was someone I wanted to check out. Same feeling when I saw Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise, I thought, this cat is going to do something interesting and I am going to be there when he does, and, he did. When you are part of a community, wether it is film or art or music or design or photography or surfing or architecture or literature, something happens to you, you are drawn to a particular medium and you either, A. Go to School or B. Seek Knowledge, there are other options, I did a little of both. The point is, if you really, really love the medium, as Quentin Tarantino will tell you, "Than, you can become a filmmaker." Same rule applies for other arts, to a certain extent. Most writers of note agree that good writing can't be taught, it can be honed, but you have to have something, to begin with: experience. When I was first drawn to the Art World, I was very naive, in my mind, I pictured a world of artists and galleries and writers and thought they would all be waiting to welcome me, like a long lost family. I had no idea how treacherous, lecherous and venomous the experience could be. We all go through this experience. Spike Lee talks about waiting for the calls to come in after his first film, an after school special, anything, but the phone did not ring. I went through that with my art, with my films, with this magazine, and I'm what is commonly known as, "A white dude." So, we persevere and the work gets better and we continue to offer it to this thing we call a community, but, after all, it's a business and so, we straddle the monster and somehow squeeze moments, images, ideas into something coherently transformative, entertaining, sometimes educational and other times simply something that feels correct, it has a flow, an authenticity and a lasting result of some sort. It could be a film, it could be a book, it could be an image. Filmmaking in particular is an odd mixture of literature, theatre and science. There are levels of excellence and levels of experience and every now and then, even a newcomer can totally blow away those who have been in the game for decades, like Paul Thomas Anderson did with his epic entry into the big leagues with, "Boogie Nights." Speaking of discovering new levels of performing, I will never forget how brave Mark Whalberg's performance was in that film. We knew we were witnessing something very rare.
As far as Spike's journey goes, it has been harrowing actually, and right from the get go, controversy has been a part of his work, on and off the screen. He was a man of color entering what was considered a white mans medium. John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, John Huston, to name a few, all great filmmakers, telling great stories about what they knew, and what they knew, was mostly what they experienced, which was mostly from an Anglo viewpoint. Now, you should also know that Italian filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese also faced extremely harsh experiences when dealing with, not only the Academy and West Coast film studios, but the public's reaction to the films that he had made. Many people forget that his life was actually threatened when the nomination for a young Jody Foster in his epic film Taxi Driver, came to the fore. Eventually, the studios realized that, the public wanted to see these films and the Academy honored their originality and their craft: breakthroughs were made. Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma and John Cassavettes, took what DeSica, Fellini and Visconti had going back in Italy and rejuvenated the tradition. If you were a Swedish American, you had Ingrid Bergman. If you were a German American, you had Fritz Lang. If you were a French American, you had Truffaut. If you were an African American, you did not have a reference point per se, in Africa. You had Melvin Peebles, when it came to directing, but most of the time, you had, a white director, a white producer, a white writer, telling a black story.
The black director working with the black actor, and a black writer was rare, actually, it still is rare. I am sure, through the years, from the personification of the maids in Gone With The Wind, to the criminals in The French Connection, to the entire black-sploitation films of the Nineteen Seventies that African Americans got sick and tired of seeing shit on the screen that did not, could not and would not properly represent who they were, who they are and what they were really experiencing. Imagine a young Spike Lee watching, for the first time, "Birth of a Nation," with it's blatant viewpoints. That's some motivation to tell it like it is. The so-called, 'black man,' which is a label that irks the hell out of me every time I hear it. Why do I have to use this label to discuss another human being ? Check out the speeches of Malcolm X on this subject. The very fact that young people today have to REMIND America and Universities and Politicians that BLACK LIVES MATTER is a real sign of where we are at today. The fact that the Supreme Court is swaying so far as to deny the rights of African Americans is simply absurd. Black people are being shot down all across America and here we are with one of the smartest, most patient, charismatic and open minded Presidents in the history of this great land, and, oh yeah, he just happens to Not Be WHITE. So, is all of this a backlash ? Maybe it is. Are we still in denial of our history ? Maybe we are. Is boycotting the Academy Awards going to make a difference ? Maybe it will. But most likely, it will simply start a dialogue and, I imagine, that is what Spike Lee is doing. What many don't know is that Spike Lee was actually given an honorary Oscar Award at the Governor's Ball earlier this year and so, his defiance has a particularly stinging effect. Already the Academy is exclaiming to now expand it's membership in some new and diverse way. Okay, that's a beginning.
Here is where things get tricky. Will Smith, who is really a progeny of the Hollywood entertainment industry, having started on television with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, forays into pop music and eventually taking on controversial and brave film roles such as, "Six Degrees of Separation," which was a particularly dangerous career choice that payed off well and led to his stellar performance as the Greatest Boxer, Poet and Anti War activist ever in, "ALI," has made a film this year, "Concussion," with a phenomenal performance, as an African doctor, who takes on, of all powerful entities, the National Football League, also known as the NFL. It just so happens that the SuperBowl, presented by the NFL and The Oscar Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, are the two largest advertising events of the entire year. The money to be made selling automobiles, beverages and entertainment products is unfathomable to the average person. The politics of which films gets nominated is much deeper, and complicated than any one of us can imagine. Both media events happen in February. Will Smith, who has done very well with big Hollywood, big entertainment and big advertising was not nominated for an award this year. Will Smith's lovely and articulate wife, Jada, was one of the first West Coast personalities, to come out for the boycott. Unfortunately, it appeared to many, and even to me, that Mr. Smith, having been snubbed, possibly sulking around the house wondering what more he had to do to get some recognition for outstanding work in his chosen business, complained privately and in confidence to his life mate, who then came out against the lack of diversity at this years awards. People in the industry began to dismiss her objection. Reactions came quick and harsh, from former cast members to just about anyone. Lets face it, people are jealous of those who get the big bucks, those who get the accolades, those at the top of the pyramid. What I would like to remind both Will and Jada is that, first, you made a great film, secondly, and most importantly, the real reason you did not get nominated was not at all that you are a person with some color. Most likely, the reason you did not get nominated is clearly because you took on the National Football League in your film. It's the equivalent of my magazine writing an in depth article about how bad for your health drinking Coca Cola and eating at McDonalds is and then calling them for advertising. You made a brave film about the NFL and the entertainment industry sacked you. That is to be expected. These people play hard ball, this is big business in America folks. But, it was a brave move, so, like ALI, you gotta float like a butterfly 'cause you already stung like a bee.
But wait, that's not all, ye old plot thickens. Conscientious white actors, such as the extremely socially active and aware Mark Ruffalo has now decided that he may not attend. Amazing since he is actually a Nominated Actor in what people call, a "Main Category." First of all people, ALL CATEGORIES at The Academy Awards are MAIN CATEGORIES. The first thing you learn as an actor or a technician in the world of Theatre and Film is the tired, but true maxim that, "There are no small parts, only small actors," The same is true for categories and awards. The fact that Mr. Ruffalo announced his concerns, prior to the Academy actually voting on a final winner is amazing. So then, Spike Lee has made a difference. But here's the problem, do we really want to have this award or that award go to someone of color because there was a boycott ? What will that do to the process over a long period of time ? Will the Academy then be forced to give a person of color a slot because we made them do it ? The token award, like the token cast member who brings in a demographic ? That could get very convoluted. And then we have to ask ourselves, where are the Latino Actors ? Where are the Asian Actors ? The fact of the matter is, many of the actors in nominated and winning slots have been from England and Australia ? Some media personalities have joked that American White Actors should be up in arms about the Academy's policies and choices. I would like to see powerful celebrities like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett stand up to the Supreme Court who are currently about to gut the rights of African Americans and women across the nation. Who cares about the gold at the top, when the people who watch your films are so damn poor, they have to watch bootlegged versions of your films on the internet ?
The Songwriter, Actor and Producer, IceCube, who has done very well with his film franchise, starting with the breakthrough, "Friday," which my, 'white,' nephew turned me onto years ago, has received a nomination via his screenwriters in this years film, "Straight Outta Compton." When asked recently on BBC Television, what he thought of the recent upheaval, he simply replied, in that no nonsense style, that we have come to love and respect, that he doesn't make films for awards, he makes them for the fans, he makes them for the curious, he makes them to tell a story, and if they don't get awards, maybe it's time to walk away. Then he added, "How can you boycott something that you never attended to begin with ? " Which does put a lot of this in perspective. My office is not far from South Central. I see the real problems facing my African American friends and neighbors. My work takes me into areas of Downtown where thousands of African American people live on the streets. I watch whats happening across the country. I read newspapers in almost every state of the union. The real problems of unity, diversity and justice won't necessarily happen through the entertainment industry. We as Americans need to deal with our past. We need a return to manufacturing and jobs. We need to deal with the Corporate takeover that happened years ago. We need to embrace our differences and unify through those variations. If they don't give us awards, and if Coca-Cola and McDonalds doesn't advertise in our magazine, then, we have simply got to do, what we have always done and always will do, in the words of the late great Curtis Mayfield, we've got to, "Keep on Pushin."
WELCOME to The Most Recent Edition of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. This Edition contains The BUREAU ICON Essay: BOB DYLAN. Interviews + Photographic Essays with Alex HARRIS on The INUIT, Kanayo ADIBE in Baltimore, Lynn SAVILLE in New York City, Mike MILLER on West Coast Style, Ryan SCHIERLING in AUSTIN and BUREAU GUEST Artist: Melissa Ann PINNEY ART Interview with David BURKE in Bay Area. Plus: Michelle HANDELMAN. New FICTION: THEY CALL IT THE CITY of ANGELS Part III MUSIC Contributor: Sarah Rose PERRY on The Femme PUNK Scene. MUSIC Interview with JAHI. Plus US MUSEUMS: Detroit's 30 ARTISTS Exhibit, Milwaukee's Larry SULTAN, Photo LA, BOOK Stores Across US: BookPeople, Anderson's, City Lights, Book Reviews from STRAND NYC. Classical MUSIC and Rock & Roll: Not So Different After All. Elliott Landy and The BAND.
BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE IS EDITED BY J. A. TRILIEGI
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THE BUREAU ICON ESSAY
BOB DYLAN
By BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE EDITOR J. A. TRILIEGI
Bob Dylan transformed the idea of what it is to be hip, deep, cool, sexy, funny, ironic and intelligent, all the while, retaining a purist style that remained true to himself. Each step of the way, each level of transcendence, each pitfall, each breakthrough moment has it's challenges, it's problems, its rewards. Success in the creative field can mean as many things to as many performers, songwriters and those who fall in the center of the American spotlight of popularity. Few can survive it, even fewer are able to retain a sense of self and even protect that idea publicly. Dylan took the name of a poet, hopped on a bus, looked at America and told the world truths, that have to this day, remain truer and truer as time passes. The songs he wrote fifty years ago are more relevant now than ever, they will be more relevant in 100 years. The international press corp came at Dylan with the headlights on high beam. Instead of stare like a deer, he treated the alliance like a musketeer might approach a formal fencing match: Touché. The American Poet & wordsmith extraordinaire had become The Folkie, The Beatnik, The Rocker, The Philosopher, The Historian, The Cowboy, The Hermit, The Leader, The Champion of Underdogs, The Christian, The Anonymous, The Legend, The Icon and through it all, he's still Bob Dylan. An American guy from The Midwest who started with nothing but a blank piece of paper and a few ideas. For every title, there also came a group of admirers and detractors, who wanted something. They wanted more than the music, more than the lyrics, more than the concert, more than the records, they wanted a symbol they could use for their own parade, their own arcade, their own charade and Dylan denied the puppet strings, denied the sacrificial position, denied the groups that had latched onto him and he remained true to the only thing a human has from the very beginning to the very end: Oneself. He has understood that selling albums, performing, having a contract to support the self expression is where it's at, and all the while, Dylan has offered us what he has. Critics through the years have expressions and titles and adjectives that glibly describe the various stages of Dylan's career: A Major Album, A Minor Album, Etc… His voice was laughable, compared to entertainers like Frank Sinatra, his stage presence was stiff, compared to singers such as Elvis Presley, his looks were nerdy, compared to performers like Johnny Cash and yet, he competed, sold millions of albums, and wrote anthems that have defined, to it's very core, what it is to Be : American. Bob Dylan is incomparable to other performers in the industry, he is an anomaly, he is the exception to the rule, there is no parallel story that can live up to Bob Dylan, so, please, don't even try. Today, we honor Bob Dylan, not for who you wanted him to be, not for what might have been, not for any ideas outside the realm of his oeuvre but, we honor him for what he actually is : The Great Independent American Artist.
CATHERINE OPIE Untitled #5 (Elizabeth Taylor's Closet) 2012 Pigment Print 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Edition of 3, 1 AP Courtesy of REGEN PROJECTS / BUREAU PICK for PHOTO LA INSTALLATION / TBA
READ ALL OF SEASON THREE Plus The Final CHAPTER in
THE FALL EDITION OF BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE ...
The Original Fiction Series: " THEY CALL IT THE CITY OF ANGELS," began in 2013 with Season One. A Literary experiment that originally introduced five fictional families, through dozens of characters that came to life before our readers eyes, when Editor Joshua Triliegi, improvised an entire novel on a daily basis and publicly published each chapter on-line. Season Two was an entire smash hit with readers in Los Angeles, where the novel is set and quickly spread to communities around the world through translations. Season III began in August 2015 and the same rules applied. The entire Final season was Improvised without Any Notes : A Chapter a Day.
CINDY SHERMAN UNTITLED FILM STILL # 7 The BROAD MUSEUM
The NEW BROAD MUSEUM in L. A.
PHOTO : Iwan Baan THE BROAD MUSEUM
The Broad makes its collection of contemporary art from the 1950s to the present accessible to the widest possible audience by presenting exhibitions and operating a lending program to art museums and galleries worldwide.The Broad is a new contemporary art museum built by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. The museum, which is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler will offer free general admission. The museum will be home to the nearly 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is among the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide. With its innovative “veil-and-vault” concept, the 120,000-square-foot, $140-million building will feature two floors of gallery space to showcase The Broad’s comprehensive collection and will be the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library. The Broad is home to the 2,000-work Broad collection, one of the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide. With in-depth representations of influential contemporary artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barbara Kruger, Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker, Christopher Wool, Jeff Koons, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns, Cindy Sherman, Robert Rauschenberg, and more, plus an ever-growing representation of younger artists.
from BURDEN to BALDESSARI
from FISCHL to FRANCIS
from WALKER to WARHOL
221 S. Grand Avenue Los Angeles CA USA 90012 TheBroad.org
The BUREAU Guest Artist Melissa Ann PINNEY
Joshua Triliegi : How Did The New Book "TWO" Come To Fruition ?
Melissa Ann Pinney : In a funny way, you could say that TWO came about because I finally organized my work, cleaned up my studio and pinned up dozens of prints on the walls. In the spring of 2013, I had been working on the project for a while but this was the first time the images were collected all together. Ann Patchett happened to visit, loved the photographs and proposed that we make a book together. Ann is a an award-winning, best-selling author with a gift for friendship and the ability to make big things happen. Ann is also a bookseller and she wanted to get the book out to an larger audience. To do so, Ann’s thought was to invite ten of our most distinguished contemporary writers ( aka, her friends) to contribute a short essay on the idea of two. HarperCollins loved the idea as did the writers. The images and text are meant to inform one another rather than illustrate in the usual way we think of words and images. For instance, there are no photographs opposite a page of text. Ann wrote the introduction and also is the editor.
Joshua Triliegi : Can You Remember Your First Impressions and Interest in Images early on In Life ?
Melissa Ann Pinney : As a young girl, I remember feeling compelled to make something, to have a work that was my own. Painting seemed too grand and intimidating, sewing- too mundane and stereotypically feminine. It was not until college that I stumbled into photography and it felt like mine. I bought my first photography book there– the 1969 MOMA edition of The Americans, and later books of Dorothea Lange and Julia Margaret Cameron’s work. Peter Hales, the brilliant cultural historian and photographer, was my photography history professor at University of Illinois, Chicago, for my MFA. Peter had studied with Garry Winogrand. Winogrand also was a great influence on my work, along with Helen Levitt.
"I am looking for pictures – everywhere and always, with or without my camera. The pictures I want most are those I see in passing; the unexpected ways light, people and objects come together. If I am ready and quick it’s sometimes possible to get the picture; if I had to approach, explain and ask permission the picture I wanted would be already gone. It’s the unstudied, uninterrupted sense of theater in the everyday that drew me to make the image in the first place."
- Melissa Ann PINNEY
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
The Artist: http://www.melissaannpinney.com
The Gallery: http://www.schneidergallerychicago.com
The NOCTURNE
A Photographic Essay & Interview
With LYNN SAVILLE
Joshua TRILIEGI : What draws you to Night Photography?
Lynn SAVILLE : When I was five years old, two keys things happened. I looked out of the window at night into my back yard in Durham, North Carolina and noticed that the grass, tool shed, wheelbarrow and trees appeared scary at night. Illuminated by the single floodlight behind our house, the very familiar terrain became mysterious and dangerous during the night. It had looked normal and calm during the daytime. This very familiar place took on a new dimension at night. The second key occurrence was that my family boarded a steam ship in New York City’s harbor and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to Italy. This experience created in me, a dramatic appreciation for New York City, and an awe of the night, the stars, water, the rare sight of the occasional ship at sea.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Take us on a shoot with you: Location, Number of Images, Time invested in The Walk about, Choosing the work, Printing and Exhibiting.
Lynn SAVILLE : When working in my own city [ New York ], I walk during different times of day and evening making mental notes and cell phone snapshots of places that attract my interest. Later I return when it’s dawn or twilight and look again at the way these chosen “locations” appear in the shifting light. I might return to a location three or four times to see what I find…always bringing my camera and tripod and any other items such as velvet to minimize reflections if I’m photographing into a window and a small flashlight or headlamp to use if I want to paint some light.
I edit on my computer and make contact sheets or small 4” x 6” proof prints through inexpensive online printing labs or with Xerox. These I put on my magnetic board in my apartment – to “live with them”. I find that seeing photographs at different times of day and night helps me select the best ones.
When preparing for an exhibition, I print the photographs 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 as “match prints” – fine tuning the files. I generally print on a paper size of 20” x 24” or 30” x 40” and occasionally 40“ x 50”. These are printed with archival inkjet process.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
Dark City Exhibition October 2nd - November 28th, 2015
Lynn Saville explores what she refers to as “limbo regions” in her series Dark City. These regions are undeveloped and overlooked spaces across major cities’ in the United States. Although Saville initially associated these vacant spaces with the economic turmoil of the recession, she came to realize that they also resulted from a natural cycle of decay and renewal in the urban landscape. She photographs at either dawn or dusk so that the place itself is lighting the scene with streetlight, window light, advertisements and surveillance lighting. Saville has been able to transform these spaces into lively and inviting places even with the absence of people and the cities usual attractions. She regards such places as “empty skeletal sets in which objects can dream, and light and shadow can dance uninterrupted.”
Visit The Gallery and The Artist for Sizes, Specifications and Available Photographs at:
SCHNEIDER GALLERY 770 North LaSalle Dr. Suite 401, Chicago, IL 60654
FIRE + ICE PHOTO ESSAY and Article
By ALEX HARRIS
By ALEX HARRIS
Three parka-clad men, their backs to the camera, stand on an ice–covered field. Their body language – what we can see of it – implies rest, perhaps resignation, as they watch a building burn. Minutes earlier, inside a Quaker church in the Alaskan Inuit village of Selawik, these same men heard screams of “fire!” Outside, there was nothing to be done. The burning building, a schoolhouse, contained the only running water in the village, and regardless, the blaze was too far-gone to be fought.
On that April day of 1974, I was part of the crowd watching the schoolhouse burn. I was also a photographer with one roll of film in my camera, eight exposures left, trying quickly to make sense of the moment. Instinctively, I used my lens to see the fire and smoke through the bodies of the men in front of me, the way someone in the crowd would see the fire, the way the men themselves might be experiencing this moment. My instincts were to break most of the rules being taught in photojournalism school at the time. No faces are evident. No action is depicted. People standing in front of my camera mostly obscure the event itself. Yet this same photograph manages to suggest something larger than the moment, hints at the Inuit’s relationship to their environment; implies their acceptance of the power of nature.
Between 1973 and 1978 I made five trips to Alaska, living cumulatively for over a year in several Inuit villages above the Arctic Circle along the Kobuk River as well as other villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of the southern Bering Sea coast. I often arrived on a single engine weekly mail plane, and if visiting a village for the first time, would be greeted by a small group eager to see relatives who might be on the flight, or anxious to retrieve mail and supplies from the outside. Invariably someone would ask, “Why are you here?” When I said I was there to take pictures, a second question followed. “Where are you staying?” I would respond that I didn’t know. “Then stay with us.”
I learned that there was nothing naïve about the invitation. The Inuit were hospitable and trusting in this sense: they gave me time and a chance to prove myself to be a person they wanted to have around. And I wanted very much to be that person. I believe I became that person. At the time, I was a few years out of college and beginning my second education. For one thing, I was learning the craft of photography, and starting to have control of the medium. I had studied Adams’s zone system for film exposure and development, and knew how to compact into visible detail the range of light in Alaska – from bright sun on snow to deep shadow on parkas – falling on my film. Still, I had quite a distance to go to master the medium technically.
Mostly what I had to offer was my eagerness to get to know the people and places I photographed. I hoped that my familiarity would be reflected in the pictures I made. I was shooting black–and–white film, some 35mm but primarily medium format, and storing my exposed rolls under my bed inside a red tin coffee can with a plastic top. But in another sense, I had to store the photographs in my mind, as I wouldn’t see any of my pictures until I returned to the “lower 48” and developed my film. So I often brought with me a couple of photographic books for inspiration, looking not so much to answer questions about technique, framing, or exposure, but to try to understand what a photographer’s work could tell me about how to get inside another world with a camera.
In 1975 one book I brought with me was Koudelka’s The Gypsies. Whether the Gypsies looked back at Koudelka with recognition, or ignored him entirely, I was enormously drawn to the implied intimacy of the pictures he made. Koudelka was absolutely present in his own pictures, yet his own likeness never appears. He made photographs full of life and also full of mystery. Though I didn’t take on Koudelka’s high–contrast, wide–angle style, I did begin to understand from him how to get inside another world with a camera. In Alaska I came know people in a way that allowed me to participate in their lives. On each successive trip to the villages, I saw it was possible to immerse myself in a world and at the same time to observe it, to step back from the moment I was experiencing and take a photograph. I learned to make pictures – like those I’d seen in The Gypsies – pictures that hinted at more than I saw, more than I knew, more than we can ever know about another person, place or culture.
- Alex Harris
Alex Harris is a photographer and writer teaching at Duke University. He is one of the founders of DoubleTake Magazine, of the Lewis Hine Documentary Fellows Program http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/projects/hine, and of the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) http://documentarystudies.duke.edu . This fall CDS celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary http://www.cdsfirst25.com/ with a number of events in Durham North Carolina including a November 20th-22nd Documentary Forum http://www.cdsfirst25.com/docforum2015/
[ Entire PHOTO ESSAY With many More Images Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
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KANAYO ADIBE
The BALTIMORE PHOTO ESSAY
From The Street Scene Photographs of Everyday Life in Baltimore to The Weddings & Parties of Washington DC, Kanayo Adibe has gone from utilizing a cell phone to a professional camera and launched an unexpected career in less than a few years. He has a bold eye for balance, time and place. His subjects inhabit their city with a flare for life. His images capture the goings on in a way that is alive and well. He has a growing catalogue that is both valuable and interesting. We discovered his work through a special program at The Baltimore Sun Newspaper and have become a solid part of his growing audience. Today, we give you Five Questions, a Photo Essay from Mr. Kanayo Adibe's Black & White Images and a glimpse inside Baltimore.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Discuss how you approach photographing a Wedding versus a Street Shoot ?
Kanayo ADIBE : Photographing a wedding is pretty straightforward, there is a storyline, all the characters are present and all you have to do is work the timeline and capture the moments as they unfold. You are able to help shape the story, you are able to enhance it through great imagery or manipulate it by adding in poses. With street you are forced to find order in variability and chaos. You rely on variables beyond your control to tell a story as you see it. You have to act quickly when you find a moment unfolding or anticipate something occurring and hold your composition till it does.
Despite the differences between wedding and street photography a lot of the skills carry over, there is an unscripted part of weddings that remain naturally occurring and random. The difference is they occur frequently and the more attentive you are the more of them you capture. In the streets it’s a lot harder to find those moments because there are no predetermined characters to follow or a defined storyline, you have to pick and choose your subjects and hope that the right elements come together to give you that image you are looking for.
Joshua TRILIEGI : How important is representing our communities in America today and give us some examples in dealing with your subjects, creating relationships and being a strong part of the diAspora in America's culture today ?
Kanayo ADIBE : I think it’s really important to represent our communities accurately, not leaning towards what is more popular or less favorable just to get a rise out of people. As we know the traditional media is skewed in it's representation of certain demographics and usually just say and show things for higher ratings. As for my street work, I honestly photograph anything that stands out to me, good or bad. I’m not in constant search of that angle that will draw more attention to my work; I just shoot from the heart. It could be a special moment between strangers, amazing architecture, a homeless person on the street, it doesn’t matter. As long as it gives me that feeling, I will create that image. Relationship building is important, I have formed lots of bonds with other creatives, some of which have helped me grow creatively and as a business, I have also made new friends in my commercial subjects, my street subject still remain anonymous to me. As a Nigerian living in America and having to deal with the culture as it stands today is pretty interesting, I’m no different from any African American in the eyes of everyone else, so whatever they experience, I experience.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
BUREAU MUSIC INTERVIEW: JAHI
Joshua TRILIEGI : When I first discovered Rap at The Radio Club in 1982, I was still in High school, when did You first hear a Live MC and Did you ever think the Music would have such a long staying power ?
JAHI : 1982 was also an important year for me because of Sucker MC's by Run- DMC and Jam Master Jay and in my neighborhood of East Cleveland, Ohio we had DJ's on our block and had community block parties just like NYC. I remember my sister bringing home the vinyl to "Rappers Delight" in 1979 and it marks a time where I felt like I heard the term "rappers" more frequently. There was no doubt in my mind that Hip Hop music would have staying power. Deeper than the music, it was the building of culture.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Lets discuss The Newest Project: Whats It all About ?
JAHI : insPirEd is the second album from PE 2.0. I said to a friend yesterday that if I became an ancestor today I would leave happy knowing I was able to do this album. Its simply social commentary over boombap. It features my other mentor and friend KRS-One, and has incredible production from Divided Souls from Baton Rouge, the legendary Easy Mo Bee, and DJ Pain 1. It is a call of action. It's BLACK in scope and presentation. We've always know that Black Lives Matter, but this album is also about Black LOVE in a conscious kind a way. The love of my people who still stand strong in the face of tyranny by crooked police and judicial systems, out ability as Black people to still stand firm, grow, love, and live. Music is universal so everyone in Hip Hop will attach to insPirEd if they dig lyricism and hard beats, but its dedicated to my people on the front lines all over the world.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
THE BUREAU BOOK Reviews
By The Staff of Strand Books in New York New York U S A
My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom & Orson Welles
by Peter Biskind / Review by Jim at Strand Books NYC
My Lunches With Orson is a unique and hilarious peek at one of America's greatest and most notorious film directors and actors, Orson Welles. Forty years since his legendary debut film, Citizen Kane, and nearly a decade since audiences had seen a finished film of his, Welles sat at the Ma Maison in Los Angeles, treating the Parisian-themed restaurant as a pseudo-office while meeting with filmmaker Henry Jaglom for lunch to discuss business and various other topics. Taken from Jaglom's recordings long thought lost forever, Peter Biskind (famed film writer of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures) compiles this collection of lunch conversations between the two directors. In between discussing his own infamous career, Jaglom and Welles discuss nearly every major figure in American film between 1930 and 1975 - and Welles hates nearly all of them. Katherine Hepburn, John Ford, Pauline Kael, and Charlie Chaplan are amongst the many who are brought up and few survive his wrath. The candid conversations are a brilliant form of performance, as Welles was aware of the recorder but asked Jaglom simply to make it unseen. The legendary filmmaker vacillates often between showboating for his young friend with uproarious speeches, and speaking with the honest desperation of a man at his advanced age being unable to work, and the financial trouble that that situation places him in. All in all, Biskind's framing of the transcripts displays Welles as a dastardly charming man, bursting at the seams with knowledge while posing for his one-man audience as a charlatan. My Lunches With Orson may not be the most informative book there is to read about Welles, but it is one of the most entertaining - and it's all in his words.
Inside the Dream Palace
by Sherill Tippins / Review by Maya at Strand Books NYC
Inside the Dream Palace is an in-depth look at a New York institution full of great mini-biographies and quirky histories. From Mark Twain to Sid and Nancy, the Chelsea Hotel has hosted a wide variety of creative characters (Jack the Ripper may have even stayed in the Chelsea). It’s a great read if you want a book about New York that isn’t too dry or too gossipy. In fact it has very little gossip at all, but lots of interesting facts about the behavior of, mainly famous, creatives. It is a perfect beach book but also a great read for the historian looking to read something light that still has a great deal to say about New York history. I personally enjoyed the way that New York is shown through the eyes of writers, artists and musicians such as Dylan Thomas, Harry Smith, and Patti Smith. Sherill Tippins seamlessly weaves these separate stories together creating a biography of a building, a neighborhood and a city. It’s important to know the history of New York and specifically the history of it’s communities so that we can continue their work. In Dream Palace, Sherill Tippins exposes how creative havens can be fostered but also how they are often destroyed by non-creatives. Dream Palace joins the dialogue and the struggle of the book Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community, and the film The Art of the Steal. We need more voices to tell these histories of how spaces for artists, writers and musicians are being turned into money making schemes.
A Game of Thrones
by George R. R. Martin / Reviewed by Toni at Strand Books NYC
One of the most used cliches in all of high fantasy is that of the farm boy (or other "simpleton") turned hero. Since Tolkien penned his Middle Earth stories, this trope has been wildly popular in the genre. One of the reasons I love Game of Thrones so much is that it completely ditches this typical cliche. Martin writes his story in such a way that it grabs readers immediately. More than once I found myself unable to put the book down until I found out what had happened to the characters I had so quickly become taken by. With each chapter told from the viewpoint of a different character, it easy to pick favorites at the start. It also ditches the typical cliche of the fantasy trope, focusing instead on the individuals functioning as a part of the whole, with each character bringing something to the dilemma. And the dilemma is, what else in a medieval setting, a clash for power. Game of Thrones, for me, reinvented the genre more than any other fantasy series. With five books and counting, I grow more and more attached to the Seven Kingdoms, and root for my favorite characters each time I pick up a book. Of course, there are downsides to the series. Most noteable and really the only negative of substance is that he doesn't write fast enough. For those who have seen the HBO series, I urge you to pick up the books. While the series is phenomenal, the books bring so much more to light. There is so much that you miss simply from watching it on TV. You won't be disappointed.
Canned
By Franklin Schneider / Reviewed by Uzodinma at Strand Books NYC
A down-dirty, grit-covered gem of a book. Mislabeled as humor. Franklin is the pal we all have stories about, like a correspondent on the front lines of a war many of us are afraid to fight. I'd go so far as to say that even if you don't agree with the way he sloughs off society's rules, you've at least wondered about it. You, like me, we've all crunched through pointless jobs, or ones we may even like, and still something's missing. But something's always missing. And this, I'd argue, is what Schneider, would like us to laugh at and understand. Not the evils of culture, or the modern work-week, not necessarily. You can seize up if you want to on the bits about laziness and unemployment checks, but that's the light-hearted, topical fluff. Think about it this way, and it's true: the gifts of the culture we live in were created by thinkers, dreamers, that is, by completely different hands than the ones that use those same dreams to lock us down and enslave us . . . Or maybe that's too far out there. What I like about this guy Franklin though, is that there's no real dogma, no ten-step revolution, nor should there be. He wanted off the 9-to-5 treadmill to become a writer, and thus the book, this book, is the proof that we can create the life we want to live, or go down trying. Thus the saga. Sex romps in unfinished basements. Inter-office pranks. Ten-day benders. The arcade chapter. The dead man in the Porto-Potty. More sex. The sex chapter. More racing, full sprint, down moonlit streets. The lawn mower through the window thing. This is Franklin's saga. Like we each have our own, and it's up to us to stay awake .
828 Broadway, Manhattan, NY 10003-4805 phone: 212.473.1452
fax: 212.473.2591 Monday-Saturday 9:30am - 10:30pm Sunday 11:00am - 10:30pm
Rare Book Room is open daily until 6:15pm
IMAGE: Edward Hopper (U.S.A., 1882–1967), New York Corner (Corner Saloon), 1913. Oil on canvas.
Edward Hopper: New York Corner
Through February 8, 2016 The exhibition showcases the painting New York Corner and contextualizes it by grouping works from the museum’s collection into several art-object-based “conversations.” These constellations point to the kinds of artistic practice that preceded the painting’s creation; showcase concurrent work, both similar and different, by Hopper’s contemporaries; and present the kinds of practice that followed.
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University 328 Lomita Drive at Museum Way Stanford, CA 94305
image: Elliott Landy Courtesy of The Artist and LandyVision.com
THE PHOTOGRAPHER ELLIOT LANDY
This Fall a New Book by Photographer Elliot Landy with Exclusive Images of Bob Dylan and The BAND will be available. Recent Documentaries and New releases on Audio of BOB DYLAN's Famed Basement Tapes Sessions have been celebrated with the participation of T. Bone Burnett, Mumford & Sons and a Showtime Series that included the participation of Elvis Costello have cast a new re-look at this important period in the life of one of America's most important songwriters. Elliott Landy took many of the pinnacle images that defined Robbie Robertson and The Band's Big Pink album as well as Dylan's retreat from the public eye in Woodstock NY. This much anticipated original publication is a must for music lover's, Dylan fans and Rock & Roll Historians.
Check your Local Bookstores November 2015 and for more information visit: LandyVision.com
BUREAU BEST BOOKS : ANDERSONS
In 1964 they opened the first official bookstore: Paperback Paradise. Since then they have expanded and moved several times, opening Downers Grove store in 1980 and a children’s wholesale warehouse bookfair company, Anderson’s Bookfair Company (ABCFairs), in 1982. Bookfair company has grown and moved 5 times from being in the basement of Downers Grove store. Last November they opened Two Doors East, an eclectic and unique gift store, just two doors down from the Naperville bookshop. The members 5th generation that own and run the businesses today all started to work at a very young age in the family’s Business. " Working along side with your grandfather, parents, brothers, sister, and children is a family tradition that creates community within your family, and reaches your employees, your customers, and beyond your brick and mortar location." Each generation of their family has offered new touches and ideas to keep it innovative, fresh and exciting.
5112 Main St, Downers Grove, IL 60515 (630) 963-2665
Unidentified photographer, American, 20th century Circa 1950s Gift of Peter J. Cohen Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
presents
Unfinished Stories: Snapshots
from the Peter J. Cohen Collection Now Through to February 21, 2016
Unfinished Stories celebrates a century of snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Collection of amateur photographs. An avid collector, Cohen rescued more than 50,000 lost, discarded, or disowned personal photographs, culled from flea markets, antique shops, galleries, eBay, and private dealers. As he sifted and sorted through his finds, Cohen discovered mesmerizing, often humorous, shots removed from their original context: People at Play, Photographers’ Shadows, Double Exposure, Couples, Oddities, and Hula Madness. These pictures reveal the lives of strangers through intimate exposures, telling a story, or as Cohen puts it, “a teeny part of a story that remains unfinished.”
CRAFTED: Beth Lipman Cut Table Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Boston © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts Boston presents Crafted Objects in Flux
Now Through to January 10, 2016
“Crafted” explores this moment of “flux” in the field, focusing on contemporary craft-based artists who bridge cutting-edge concepts and traditional skills as they embrace and explore the increasingly blurred boundaries between art, craft, and design. Featuring a selection of works from across the landscape of contemporary craft, the exhibition includes more than 30 emerging and established international artists. Looking to a broad range of materials and practices, the exhibition explores the connections between craft and performance; the opportunities provided by new technologies and materials; and the power of rethinking craft’s interactions with architecture and space. This exhibition is the first of its kind within an encyclopedic museum to explore the broad possibilities of contemporary artistic engagement with craft. By examining these interactions in proximity to historical examples in the MFA’s collection, “Crafted” demonstrates the vitality, viability, and variety inherent in choosing craft as a foundation for contemporary artistic practice. Tap: mfa.org
THE BUREAU PHOTO INTERVIEW
Ryan SCHIERLING
The How, The What and The Why of Taking Photographs for a Living . The Austin Based Photographer Discusses His Work in Seattle Washington +More
Joshua TRILIEGI : There is a real diversity in your catalogue, explain what draws you to a subject, how you approach it and where you decide to frame it?
Ryan SCHIERLING : I’m drawn to anything that’s visually and aesthetically pleasing, but I think that describes most photographers. The process of translating what I’m seeing into a photograph using a mechanical process of adjusting this and that is what, my style? Visually, I like clean images. I like to fill the frame with precisely what I want, because I don’t crop much. I want exactly what I want to see, and it’s done in camera, zooming a lens, or moving the legs here and there.
Shooting portraits, specifically environmental portraits, is what I worked the hardest on. Photojournalism is documenting a scene unfolding around you. You’re not supposed to be part of it, you’re an external, impartial observer. That’s easy. To engage someone before the camera even comes out of the bag and have them be comfortable with you, enough to give you a piece of themselves in a photograph, is difficult. There have been people I’ve wanted to take a photo of, but it just didn’t feel right emotionally, or they weren’t in the right frame of mind to be physically and mentally present for the camera. I was never good with the whole “Alright, you have five minutes to shoot Mr. Famous Person” because there’s no connection. You’re just making a visually-accurate representation of what Mr. Famous Person looked like in that 1/60 of a second. I’d rather genuinely talk to them for five minutes, as a real person, and take one frame before I leave.
Ryan SCHIERLING : I did that the last time I photographed John Vanderslice, and I’ve shot so many photos of him - live and portraits - over the years. I shot a few songs of a show at The Mohawk in Austin, and I just wanted to watch and listen for the rest. Throngs of people were looking to talk to him after the set. It was after 1 a.m., and I didn’t want to intrude. I only wanted to let him know that he’d played a wonderful show - as always - and shake his hand. I asked him if I could just take two frames, and he looked a little surprised, but graciously agreed. I said, “Close your eyes. Take a deep breath, exhale.” Click. “Turn around, relax.” Click. Those are some of my favorite images of him.
Faces interest me, body language interests me. How people relate to their environments. Things that happen to people, moments that they will never forget, moments that might seem small, or large, or insignificant. They all make a difference in our lives. I can’t be everywhere I’d like to be, so i just try to capture what I can, when I can. it’s all important in some manner, whether it’s politics, music, dinner, a first date or a death in the family.
There's a photograph in just about every situation you'll ever come across. Sometimes it's just a matter of stopping and looking a little harder. In some photos there are stories that need to be told, in others there might just be a feeling. One quote I remember from photographer Windy Osborne really stuck with me, and it's been probably 25-plus years. "Fill the frame with exactly what you want to see." I try to get all of the important elements in there, without making anything cluttered. And that tends to be my style in whatever I shoot, whether it's music or portraits or landscapes or anything that’s in front of me.
Ryan SCHIERLING : I don’t have a lot of photo books. There are no collections I keep other than cookbooks and old skateboards. The few photography books I do have are by Glen E. Friedman, Charles Peterson, Richard Avedon, Jim Brandenburg. I have all issues of “Loose Lips Sink Ships” from Steve Gullick and Stevie Chick. Gullick is incredible. He and Peterson certainly influenced my music photography initially. Both had a dirty, grainy style, but Steve did some lovely lighting for portraits and Charles captured a Pacific Northwest live music epoch with a camera and a strobe attached to a motorcycle battery. I dig Danny Clinch and his aesthetic. Old school? Windy Osborne and Spike Jonze - shooting for Freestylin’ Magazine in the late 80s - were huge for me, riding, shooting and working on a craft. Dan Sturt and J. Grant Brittain were massive talents at Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. Sturt’s mid-lens artistry and framing in a fisheye-lens dominated industry was incredibly inspirational. Brittain’s 1987 TWS cover of Tod Swank still makes me shake my head and smile every time I see it. At a young age, there were no finer photographers to emulate. New School? I love William Anthony, Dan Winters, Jonathan Saunders, Penny De Los Santos. I don’t shoot for a living anymore, so there’s no pressure to push the button for nonsense. I just try to stay true to the subject and the image, whatever it may be.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
BUREAU BEST BOOKS : BOOKPEOPLE
BookPeople has been the leading independent bookstore in Texas since 1970. Located in the heart of downtown, BookPeople has been voted best bookstore in Austin for over 15 years. BookPeople was voted Bookstore of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly in 2005. With visits from some of the most interesting and important authors of the past 43 years, as well as by Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, BookPeople is the destination bookstore in Texas.
BOOK SIGNINGS CURRENTLY SCHEDULED INCLUDE APPEARANCES BY
OCTOBER 20TH 2015
ELVIS COSTELLO
NOVEMBER 12TH 2015
JOHN IRVING
DECEMBER 9TH 2015
SALLY MANN
603 N. Lamar Blvd Austin, TX 78703 512-472-5050 Visit : Bookpeople.com
THE BUREAU EXCLUSIVE ART INTERVIEW
DAVID BURKE : PAINTER
Joshua TRILIEGI : The New Work has both architectural as well as figural conflagrations with a seriously organic feel. What happened to you between the previous target series and the new work?
David BURKE : In graduate school I had a professor look at my paintings and say, “You’re not an architect, your belongs in a world that is more organic. Stay away from that other stuff.” It took me almost ten years to paint anything that was remotely architectural after that. It’s funny the things that stick with us, the grad school ghosts that haunt us and eventually need to exorcised. In 2011, I was a visiting lecturer at Chiang Mai University in Northern Thailand and I spent almost the entire year painting landscapes that were spawned by my inability to reconcile the tension between the beauty of the pristine Thai landscape and the destruction of this landscape driven by an increased surge towards westernization and development. When I returned to Bay Area, where I grew up, I was shocked at how a place so known to me could feel almost completely foreign. The intensity of the urban landscape was arresting. In order to get reacquainted with my environment I started painting what I call “fractured landscapes” that tapped into the disorientation I was experiencing upon my return.
"When I’m painting, once the first mark hits the surface, this stuff flies out the window and it’s all about making the work. A painting should never shake its finger at the viewer; nobody wants to live with a work of art that appears to be judging them."
In these paintings pools of ink recede like oil-saturated waters at low tide. Trees emerge from a tangled field of structures, gears, and wires. My process involves equal parts control and chaos, and echoes tenuous socio-ecological relationships depicted in the imagery. The use of synthetic material reinforces the commentary on man’s impulse to consume, contain and modify the earth’s resources in order to accommodate our own needs and desires. Contrary to some of the jaded ideas around the work, the paintings are actually quite optimistic in the sense that I am continually awestruck by the resilience of the natural world in the face of such heinous destruction. This relationship between man and nature has all of the trappings of a dysfunctional marriage that has lasted thousands of years. It’s filled with lover’s quarrels, abuse, comedy and beauty. When I’m painting, once the first mark hits the surface, this stuff flies out the window and it’s all about making the work. A painting should never shake its finger at the viewer; nobody wants to live with a work of art that appears to be judging them.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
Links to David BURKE At The Vessel Gallery Exhibit : http://bit.ly/1NxWCH7
Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark." Although it has been more than fifty years since tour buses with passengers eager to sight "beatniks" began pulling up in front of City Lights, the Beats' legacy of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking continues to be a strong influence in the store, most evident in the selection of titles. The nation's first all-paperback bookstore, City Lights has expanded several times over the years; we now offer three floors of both new-release hardcovers and quality paperbacks from all of the major publishing houses, along with an impressive range of titles from smaller, harder-to-find, specialty publishers. The store features an extensive and in-depth selection of poetry, fiction, translations, politics, history, philosophy, music, spirituality, and more, with a staff whose special book interests in many fields contribute to the hand-picked quality of what you see on the shelves. The City Lights masthead says A Literary Meeting place since 1953, and this concept includes publishing books as well as selling them. In 1955, Ferlinghetti launched City Lights Publishers with the now-famous Pocket Poets Series; since then the press has gone on to publish a wide range of titles, both poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction, international and local authors.
Visit The Store: CityLights.com
261 Columbus Avenue San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 362-8193
BUREAU INTERVIEW : MICHELLE HANDELMAN ARTIST
Cyphers from Irma Vep, The Last Breath, 2013, digital c-print on archival paper, 18” x 24”, courtesy Participant, Inc., New York City
BUREAU : Let’s discuss video art. Who are your earliest influences.
Michelle HANDELMAN : If by influences you mean cultural artifacts that absolutely transfixed my imagination, both visually and mentally, things that totally rocked my world, then without a doubt it was: horror films. In fact probably the earliest memories I have revolve around my brothers and I dressing up as vampires and watching old black and white horror films. We would put white powder on our faces, throw towels around our shoulders like capes, light candles and watch Creature Features every weekend—Tod Browning’s Dracula, Edgar Ulmer’s The Black Cat—all the 1930s classics starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. And so, from a very early age I had this interest in the macabre and the supernatural, and the symbolic language of monsters. Two films that thoroughly imprinted themselves on me back then were Mario Bava’s Black Sunday and Hitchcock’s The Birds. I mean, when Barbara Steele emerges from that iron maiden in Black Sunday with holes all over her face that was just the coolest thing I ever saw. It was deep. I mean, we’re all riddled with holes, metaphorically, and its all one can do to keep the tatters together and move forward. But to get back to your original question about video or experimental avant-garde film, the first moving image artists who rocked my world were Charles Atlas and Ulrike Ottinger.
BUREAU : Do you believe art can change policy? Acceptance and progress?
Michelle HANDELMAN : I look at the world of humans as one large dysfunctional family that has the ability to evolve and transcend hatred, but the cards are still out as to whether or not that will ever happen. I do feel I’m a realistic optimist, which means I believe in transformation, but I also know destruction is inevitable, and in fact necessary for change. But to specifically address your question, yes, I do believe some art can lead to a change in policy. I don’t think it can actually change policy, but it can open dialogue, that can lead to a change. My piece at Eastern State Penitentiary has been on display for three years now, and periodically I receive emails from people telling me how it changed them. Last year I received a call from the federal Bureau Of Prisons inviting me to present my piece to their corrections officers. That was the first time I actually felt my work was effecting change in a very direct way. I met with the head of the BOP, as well as an assortment of bureaucrats, guards and officers and they wanted to know….they knew they had to change the way they’ve been dealing with trans inmates. They didn’t understand it, probably didn’t like it, but still, they knew they needed to change and they asked questions, lots of questions. In fact just today I was reading in the New York Times about how police officers are now receiving mandatory training on interacting with trans people. I’d like to think that in some small way my piece played a part in this change.
[ Entire Interview Continues in The FREE FALL Edition ]
Larry Sulton Oranges on Fire 1975 LarrySulton.com
Milwaukee Art Museum
presents
The Photographic Works of Photographer Larry Sultan
October 23, 2015 – January 24, 2016
The exhibition includes more than 200 photographs ranging from Sultan’s conceptual and collaborative works of the 1970s to his solo works in the decades following. Sultan never stopped challenging the conventions of photographic documentation, exploring themes of family, home, and façade throughout his career. Larry Sultan grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley, which became a source of inspiration for a number of his projects. His work blends documentary and staged photography to create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life.
Sultan’s pioneering book and exhibition Pictures From Home (1992) was a decade long project that features his own mother and father as its primary subjects, exploring photography’s role in creating familial mythologies. Using this same suburban setting, his book, The Valley (2004) examined the adult film industry and the area’s middle-class tract homes that serve as pornographic film sets. Katherine Avenue, (2010) the exhibition and book, explored Sultan’s three main series, Pictures From Home, The Valley, and Homeland along side each other to further examine how Sultan’s images negotiate between reality and fantasy, domesticity and desire, as the mundane qualities of the domestic surroundings become loaded cultural symbols.
In 2012, the monograph, Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel was published to examine in depth the thirty plus year collaboration between these artists as they tackled numerous conceptual projects together that includes Billboards, How to Read Music In One Evening, Newsroom, and the seminal photography book Evidence, a collection of found institutional photographs, first published in 1977. Larry Sultan’s work has been exhibited and published widely and is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he was also recognized with the Bay Area Treasure Award in 2005. Sultan served as a Distinguished Professor of Photography at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946, Larry Sultan passed away at his home in Greenbrae, California in 2009.
The Artist: LarrySultan.com The Museum : MAM.org
Kehinde Wiley / 30 Americans : Detroit Institute of Arts Oct. 18, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016
30 Americans : Detroit Institute of Arts
Oct. 18, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016
30 Americans is a dynamic exhibition of contemporary art by African American artists, on view Oct. 18, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016. “30 Americans” includes 55 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and videos by many of the most important artists who rose to prominence during recent decades by exploring racial, gender, political and historical identity in contemporary culture. Organized around several artistic approaches used by the artists to explore identity: defying Western art traditions; portraying black subjects as real people as opposed to types; sampling multiple sources of inspiration, from historical material to found objects; freestyling by adopting improvisational and expressionistic styles to demonstrate creative and technical virtuosity; signifying through the use of symbols, materials and images that imply or trigger associations about gender, race, religion, class and sexuality; transforming the body’s appearance to examine the relationship between societal assumptions and identity; and confronting American history regarding race, racism and power in the United States. VISIT THE LINK AT: www.dia.org
Photo Image: : Melissa Ann PINNEY Courtesy SCHNEIDER GALLERY Chicago USA
The Underground Punk Music Scene : A Feminists View
By Bureau Music Contributor Sarah Rose Perry
Young people from far and near come line up in a Downtown LA alley outside of The Smell -- an all ages, self sustained “community oriented art and music space” waiting to see The Groans Joel Jerome, Sloppy Jane and Peach Kelli Pop. These bands collectively, along with countless more, make up a fresh and new underground music scene. Concentrated in the Inland Empire, but spread about Los Angeles and Riverside counties, the Groups range from garage rock to punk pop. The bands and their fans are something like that of a large family, with many distant relatives; you might not know each person there, but everyone is friendly and glad to see you. The Groans were the opening band at Friday’s show and when asked about why the scene is so important to us young people, they explained that the scene is very much a community and it’s exciting to be a part of, because “it gives people who are different or outsiders a sense of home.” It also provides a space for women empowerment. Whether they are deliberately taking a political stance, or simply being badass women, the message from these leading female musicians is clear and powerful.
As I myself can testify, being a young woman, and seeing these other ladies on stage, confidently doing traditionally male dominated work, can be a catalyst for a dose of adrenaline and self approval. The Groans first got together because the lead singer, Amanda, and the bassist, Annie, thought there weren’t enough women in the local music scene. They explain, “we wanted a band that represented women of color and women in general.” They have achieved this thoroughly and many of their song’s lyrics make that statement loud and clear. One of their more popular songs entitled “The Perks of Being a Girl” (“perks” being used rather sardonically) begins with fast paced music, sing - songy vocals and features a very catchy build up stating, “I can be pretty. I can be skinny. I can be everything, BUT I. Don’t. Owe. You. Anything.” The band states, “It’s about the shit all women go through on a daily basis… It’s us saying ‘fuck you’ to society’s beauty standards; I’m beautiful no matter what.” This turned out to be a highly relatable concept among the young adults at the show, boys and girls alike. During their performance of the song on Friday, a sweaty mosh pit opened up in the middle of the crowd and everyone screamed along, “I’m just another girl in this fucked up world.”
Of course, this is nothing new to punk rock. As writer, Rock Hall explains, “The anti-establishment philosophy of the punk rock movement was the perfect fit for those female musicians who still felt like outsiders in the male dominated music industry” Though this particular comment was in reference to the seventies, some sentiments have remained the same. Amanda, the lead Singer of The Groans states that, “It’s a bit of a boy’s club, but [ they ] are glad to see more women in the scene.” Women throughout history have made significant, empowering gains using punk and all its sub-genres as a facilitator to bring serious female issues to the media, and by making waves in punk in the past. The female gender today are able to make the ‘fuck you, society’ statement, and be critical of authority or social norms, more safely -- which was not always the case and in some parts of the world, still is not.
Like nearly everything else, punk rock began as an all male genre, but with questioning authority and social norms as their main agenda, it was natural for women to step in and take a piece of the spotlight. Inspired by the Sex Pistols, Poly Styrene decided to form her own punk band, X-Ray Spex. Although they only lasted about three years, producing only one album, the band will be remembered by their lead singer screaming, “some people think little girls should be seen and not heard… Oh Bondage Up Yours!” Before the start of their debut single. Chris Salewicz of The Independent says, “As a dumpy, frumpy,almost willfully unsexual girl from Brixton, with braces on her teeth, Poly Styrene was a perfect candidate to find herself through punk; turning this persona on its head into an art form, she became one of the movement's principal female figures, her song ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’ a feminist rallying cry.” Also formed in 1976, The Slits were the first all women punk band. Their song “Typical Girls” includes commentary on the social pressure women receive along with the negative misconceptions upheld about them by society, “typical girls worry about spots, fat, and natural smells… typical girls are emotional / typical girls are cruel and bewitching.”
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We Thank: Da Capo Press, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Pace/MacGill Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Georgia O'Keefe Museum of Art, Fine Arts Center Colorado Springs, Duke University, Andy Warhol Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Crystal Bridges, United Artists, Spot Photo Works, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Art Huston Texas, Gallerie Urbane, Mary Boone Gallery, Pace Gallery, Asian Art Museum, Magnum Photo, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Fahey/Klein, Tobey C. Moss, Sandra Gehring, George Billis, Martin - Gropius - Bau Berlin, San Jose Museum of Art, First Run Features, Downtown Records, Koplin Del Rio, Robert Berman, Indie Printing, American Film Institute, SFMOMA, Palm Beverly Hills, KM Fine Arts, LA Art Show, Photo LA, Jewish Contemporary Museum, Cultural Affairs, Yale Collection of Rare Books & Manuscript and Richard Levy.
Contributing Photographers: Norman Seef, Herb Ritts, Jack English, Alex Harris, Gered Mankowitz, Bohnchang Koo, Natsumi Hayashi, Raymond Depardon, T. Enami, Dennis Stock, Dina Litovsky, Guillermo Cervera, Moises Saman, Cathleen Naundorf, Terry Richardson, Phil Stern, Dennis Morris, Henry Diltz, Steve Schapiro, Yousuf Karsh, Ellen Von Unwerth, William Claxton, Robin Holland, Andrew Moore, James Gabbard, Mary Ellen Mark, John Robert Rowlands, Brian Duffy, Robert Frank, Jon Lewis, Sven Hans, David Levinthal, Joshua White, Brian Forrest, Lorna Stovall, Elliott Erwitt, Rene Burri, Susan Wright, David Leventhal, Peter Van Agtmael & The Bureau Editor Joshua Triliegi.
Contributing Guest Artists: Irby Pace, Jon Swihart, F. Scott Hess, Ho Ryon Lee, Andy Moses, Kahn & Selesnick, Jules Engel, Patrick Lee, David Palumbo, Tom Gregg, Tony Fitzpatrick, Gary Lang, Fabrizio Casetta, DJ Hall, David FeBland, Eric Zener, Seeroon Yeretzian, Dawn Jackson, Charles Dickson, Ernesto DeLaLoza, Diana Wong, Gustavo Godoy, John Weston, Kris Kuksi, Bomonster, Hiroshi Ariyama, Linda Stark, Kota Ezawa, Russell Nachman, Katsushika Hokusai and Xuan Chen
Contributing Writers: Robin Holland, Jamar Mar(s) Tucker, Linda Toch, Sarah Rose Perry
