FlakPhoto Digest

flakphoto-digest

Over the years FlakPhoto has done an amazing job at promoting the work of photographers, whether known or unknown, emerging or established and from all around the world. Now Andy‘s put together a new project – FlakPhoto Digest. Sign up and each week you’ll get a well-crafted newsletter drop into your InBox at the weekend.

For the past ten years I’ve been supporting imagemakers and their work using digital media. I’m excited to announce a new project that will build on and expand upon those efforts. It’s called FlakPhoto Digest: a weekly email newsletter focused on photography + visual culture recommendations carefully curated from across the Web.

 

The Digest is a weekend reader: something you can spend time with when the work week slows down — an opportunity to sit back and relax with a handful of photo/arts links on your mobile or tablet. Email arrives on Saturdays so you can enjoy over a hot cup of coffee (or tea) when you have a moment by yourself. It’s the perfect thing for a lazy Sunday morning.

 

— Andy Adams

For the past few months I’ve been one of the lucky few receiving the FlakPhoto Digest each week while it was in closed beta, but now it’s close to being opened up to the public. For me, this is the perfect way to discover new photographers as Andy’s doing all the hard work and research! And it’s not just about showcasing photographers. It includes photo news, opportunities and calls for work. To give you an idea, FlakPhoto Digest #11, from May 2015, can be found here.

More information and the signup form can be found on the FlakPhoto website.

FlakPhoto Midwest Print Show

Madison, Wisconsin is going to be the place to be in the Midwest in the coming next few weeks, it seems. Not only is the SPE (Society of Photographic Educators) Midwest Conference being held there but there’s also the Wisconsin Book Festival and the FlakPhoto Midwest Print Show, curated by Andy Adams of FlakPhoto. I’m very grateful to Andy for selecting one of my platinum prints for inclusion in the show which showcases the work of 42 photographers from 9 states.

There will be plenty of photography in Madison with shows at the MMoCA, the Madison BUBBLER Gallery, the James Watrous Gallery, and at Overture Center for the Arts. The FlakPhoto show will be held at the Diane Endres Ballweg Gallery at the Central Library on W. Mifflin Street with the opening reception on Friday September 26th. The show runs for 5 weeks – throughout SPE – until October 30th.

“Most of what we do is in the online space, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about prints and how vital they are for we who love photography. There is an incredible amount of photographic talent here in the American Midwest and I’m thrilled to present some of these printed works in Wisconsin this fall.” — Andy Adams.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art will be screening the documentary about Alec Soth, “Somewhere to Disappear”, on Friday, September 26th at 7pm.

About FlakPhoto

FlakPhoto is an independent photo/arts collaborative that promotes the discovery of photographic image-makers from around the world. Since 2006 creator Andy Adams has staged exhibitions, publications and public conversations that foster photography culture on- and offline. FlakPhoto is based in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

The Print's the Thing*

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I couldn’t agree with these words from Andy Adams more. However, for me, I don’t feel an image is usually finished until I’ve made a print of it. Even with those images that exist solely on my website, perhaps taken with my iPhone as a record, I still feel the need to see them on paper because the tactility of the paper surface can change the entire experience.

I’ve been thinking about prints a lot lately – and how vital they are for we who love #photography. The Web is great but print LASTS. That’s going to be important for future historians who will likely grapple with all kinds of issues stemming from our early 21st century internet/photo culture.

 

This may be my most prized #photographic possession – a gift from the supremely talented photographer Keith Taylor. I enjoy it every day. It’s wonderful.

 

One of the reasons we’re doing the #FlakPhoto Midwest Print Show is to celebrate the tradition of #photo print-making and the joys of looking at analog pictures in person. The FMPS features 40+ Midwest photographers and opens September 26 in Madison, Wisconsin – I’ll announce our contributors this week. If you’re in the region I hope you’ll make the trip. More soon!

* Attributed to Irving Penn.

Call for Work — FlakPhoto Midwest Print Show

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This is a fantastic opportunity, organised by Andy Adams of FlakPhoto, for all those photographers living in the Midwest. The exhibition, in Madison, WI, runs throughout September and October at the same time all the photographers and artists arrive for the SPE Midwest Conference, the PhotoMidwest Fest, the Paul Vanderbilt exhibition, the Wisconsin Book Festival, the exhibition From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America and the Wisconsin Arts Institute residency, Truth, Lies, Memory, and Imagination: The Photograph as Story , hosted by Little Brown Mushroom’s Alec Soth and Brad Zellar.

More details can be found on FlakPhoto’s website and, best of all, it’s free to submit work.

Two Opportunities

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There are a couple of great opportunities for photographers coming up soon, the first being a call for entries for Looking at the Land — 21st Century American Views. This is an online exhibition of American landscape photography that’s being curated by Andy Adams of Flak Photo in collaboration with The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. It’ll be complementing the RISD show America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to now.

From the Flak Photo website:

Since 2006, I’ve been promoting contemporary image-makers and archiving their work in The Flak Photo Collection. Not surprisingly, many of those pictures reflect my personal interest in the environment and how humans respond to the land. So you can imagine my delight when curator Jan Howard invited me to produce a digital exhibition of 21st century American landscape views to complement her upcoming show at The RISD Museum of Art this summer.

I plan to revisit The Collection in search of images for this landscape projection but I’ll also be looking at websites across the Internet for inspiration. In the spirit of inclusivity (and with hopes for serendipitous discovery) I’m extending a public call for photographs depicting landscape in the United States since 2000.

There are no entry fees, deadline or formal application process, just email Flak Photo a link to your online portfolio and Andy will select images throughout July and August.

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The other opportunity, for those in Minnesota, is the 2012-2013 Minnesota Center for Book Arts/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Mentorship Program. Entries are now being accepted and the deadline for this is September 5th at 5pm.

For those who have been following along, I was one of the six artists chosen for this fellowship in 2010-2011 (it runs every other year) and I loved it. My book, Dark Matter, was produced during that year.

During my fellowship year I got to learn about the history of artist books, the different forms of binding a book can take, lead typesetting, polymer plate making (for type and artwork), letterpress printing, silkscreen printing, multi-signature binding, paper making… The list goes on. And at the end of the fellowship year the work is shown in the MCBA gallery.

There are three information meetings that will explain the process and answer any questions. Tuesday, July 31, 2012 – 12:00pm, Thursday, August 2, 2012 – 5:30pm and Tuesday, August 7, 2012 – 7:00pm. All are held at MCBA.