Davidson is famous for his tremendously powerful bodies of work that include “The Brooklyn Gang”, “Circus”, “East 100th Street” and “Subway”. His series based on his time in Wales, Scotland England produced what was our favorite photograph of the 240 Davidson shared with us at the lecture:

Child’s Play (Wales) © Bruce Davidson. All Rights Reserved.

Davidson’s portrait of Central Park took four years of courting this famous landmark to tease out a final group of images that present a totally unique vision. His project on the civil rights era marches in Selma is seminal.

Picnic (Central Park NYC) © Bruce Davidson. All Rights Reserved.

Davidson was born at a time (1933) when people understood things didn’t happen instantly or hey, even overnight! Like Emily Schiffer or David Brooks Stess, referred to in my last posting, Davidson spent time (often years) with his subjects and as a result his photographs are made from the inside out. His relationship with his subjects was just that: uniquely his own. With the exception of his “Subway” series (he told us he either requested permission to photograph a rider, or didn’t and ran like hell after taking the picture!) these relationships ARE the work.

I greatly appreciated Davidson’s presentation of his work as he obviously agrees with me that successful photographs speak for themselves. He worked smartly through the 240 images representing his earliest work through to what he is working on today, giving the occasional background story to flesh out the narrative of a body of work, but otherwise allowed us to remain focused on the visual overview of decades of building a lifetime’s oeuvre.

from Circus (1958, Jimmy Armstrong) © Bruce Davidson. All Rights Reserved.

As he signed my copy of “Circus” I thanked him for that approach to sharing his work with us. He understands that his work has so much to say he doesn’t need to speak for it. A master indeed.

The recent publication of “Outside Inside” featuring 834 photographs from 1954 to 2009 includes many of the photographs from his earlier books. This is a three volume set is available from $136 – $195 (and available at Magnum signed for $250) and it would be hard not to justify the expense. If you missed Davidson’s MMW lecture, console yourself with this mammoth new publication sold in a cardboard suitcase. I can’t imagine a better way to spend those long winter evenings ahead.

Schiffer is the recipient of the inaugural “The Arnold Newman Prize” – a collaboration between the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation, Photo District News, Maine Media Workshops and the Farnsworth Art Museum. It was established to reward “new directions in photographic portraiture”.

In 2005 Emily Schiffer established the “My Viewpoint Youth Photography Initiative” at the Lakota Sioux Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. These dozens of black and white photographs are beautifully and arrestingly presented with simple lines of text snaking their way around the images. This very complete body of work, ranging in sizes from 3″x3″ to 16.5″x16.5″ (the one photograph that is larger, 48″x48″, and titled “Barefoot. Cactus.” is at the entrance to the exhibit) are telling a story of childhood play.

Barefoot.Cactus. (2005) © Emily Schiffer. Collection of the artist. All rights reserved.

I couldn’t help but note the similarity to the 20 years of photographs made by David Brooks Stess (exclusively represented by VoxPhotographs) of his fellow rakers up in Washington County, Maine. Yes, the photographs are black and white, and they are all shot in a spontaneous manner, but that’s not what I mean. The commonality is based on the deep bond the photographer has created over years with his/her subjects. There is no doubt that Schiffer loves these children and her photographs of them are saturated with this love and a respect that just can not be faked.

Free Fall (2005) © Emily Schiffer. Collection of the artist. All rights reserved.

W. Eugene Smith, creator of some of the most powerful photo essays appearing in Life magazine said “The most important thing in photography is knowing what the subject is about”. Amen to that.

“Cheyenne River” will be on view until January 16, 2011.  The Farnsworth website has not yet updated its Current Exhibitions page, but if you search for SCHIFFER you will find several notes on the artist, the prize and the exhibit of work. And the artist is promising to send pics of the installation soon.

But don’t be an armchair museum-goer. A day in the midcoast towns of Rockland, Rockport and Camden will net you some very satisfying art viewing (including this exhibit, all the great galleries in Rockland, CMCA and the new MMW gallery in Rockport) and tons of cool shopping, restaurants and just hanging out in the waterfront parks. Yep, I’m a fan.

Inspired by Jen Bekman’s 20×200 venture, FOCUSMAINE.COM will feature only Maine-based fine art photographers. Friday mornings at 10 a.m. our e-mail list will be notified of the image to be made available starting that minute.

Fifty nimble collectors will be able to purchase a small print of that image for $50. But frankly, that is just the beginning and a very small part of our purpose.

Brooks Jensen, editor of LensWork magazine says: “In order to have height at the top of the pyramid, we need a very large base at the bottom.” The collector base for fine art photographs needs to be built from the ground up and we aim to do something about it.

FOCUSMAINE.COM will be the place a young or new collector can get educated about fine art photography, and then become more comfortable visiting galleries and talking with gallery staff. It will be a place to begin building relationships with artists that hit their buttons. Links to artist and gallery websites, a glossary of terms, and links to events in Maine that are featuring contemporary fine art photographers will all be featured.

One of the most important aspects of the site will be the offering of market prices and sizes for the artist’s work. Yes, every artist will allow this particular image to be sold for $50, in an edition of $50. But the image will be offered at their market prices and sizes as well. We hope the images will be compelling enough to inspire many new collectors to size up: Jim and I will set aside 10% of any sale of work other than the $50 size offered, and put that 10% of our own revenue into a Photography Fund. Every year we’ll canvass the art institutions in the state and see which of our featured artists they would like to add to their permanent collections, or which of them will be featured in an upcoming exhibit – and we’ll offer to help fund those investments.

I am the Director of VoxPhotographs – an online gallery supported by a private space in Portland where my guests can view work, sit on the terrace with a glass of wine and attend parties to celebrate Maine’s fine art photographers. Nickelson Editions is Jim Nickelson’s fine art printing company and he is one of the best digital printers in the state. Jim is an extraordinary landscape photographer. His work is represented exclusively by VoxPhotographs.

Together we plan on making a difference for Maine’s fine art photography community: the artists, the galleries, the art institutions. And soon: the collector.

So, GET READY. Sign up at focusmaine.com and stand by: we’re launching October 1 at 10 a.m. Whatever level you purchase at, FOCUSMAINE.COM will be honored to have you join Maine’s astounding community of fine art photographers. It’s the beginning of something big.

I have no shortage of visceral reactions to photographs and am fortunate to see many stupendous images. But, even in a crowded gallery on First Friday a couple of days ago where I was viewing the works included in “212: A Portrait of a City” at Susan Maasch Fine Art, my first view of Tom Baril’s photogravure “Chrysler Building” transported me instantly to a very still and beautiful place.

Chrysler Building © Tom Baril. All Rights Reserved

On Mr. Baril’s website, it says there is a portfolio of architectural images available of  photogravures hand-pulled by Jon Goodman. The images exhibited in the “212″ show are printed by Jon Goodman.

Rarely have I seen such air in a photograph and the tones are so endless and lush that even this little electronic version of the image makes me hold my breath.

The “212″ show is small but well-selected and also includes 2-3 works each on view in a variety of processes from Scott Peterman, Todd Watts, Jack Montgomery, Keliy Anderson-Staley, and one 1972 silver gelatin print of Berenice Abbott’s “Greyhound Bus Terminal” (1936) reproduced below with the permission of Susan Maasch Fine Art.

Todd Watts’ two dye transfers are intriguing and mysterious, frankly. Although way too often photographers are asked “How did you do this?” and I disapprove of such a question, it would be the first thing out of my mouth if I happened to meet Mr. Watts in front of his two images in the show.

Brooklyn Bridge (Artifice and Artifact) © Todd Watts. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Susan Maasch Fine Art

Jack Montgomery, known for his portraits of people, is bringing the same intimacy and concentration to his portraits of NYC. Small and emanating a sense of the deeply personal, these photographs beg you to push your face into them and spend some time reading their dark beauty. Wish there were more on view to round out an impression of this body of work. They are not represented on his website.

Brooklyn Heights © Jack Montgomery. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Susan Maasch Fine Art.

All of the artists in “212″ have more work available at the gallery for viewing so use the ones on view as a starting point. Then ask to see the remaining images and indulge in a full gallery experience. You know those people who work there? That’s what they are there for – to expand your world. Take advantage of it.

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Across the street and east a few feet is the cavernous SPACE GALLERY. Luckily Mark Rockwood told me yesterday about the show of Bill Daniel‘s work there or I would not have known about it – so I’m passing it on with high enthusiasm. I went right over Saturday afternoon and had the gallery to myself which I appreciated. It takes some concentration to put a full value on what you are viewing.

The most compelling pieces in the Bill Daniel show are the four fantastic black and white photographs of abandoned gas stations printed on big white tarps. I e-mailed Andy Graham at Portland Color to ask if they had been created there and the answer is yes. I don’t know about you but I have never seen anything like these. I have no image to pass on to you here but if you don’t get in to see this show sometime in August you will miss a very unique thing. Many of the walls are filled with other photos of varying sizes and mood, together with detritus described in the SPACE brochure as “unmapped photo-based work that is presented as the ‘ground score’ of an itinerant, obsessive collector of socioeconomic marginalia.” No way I could have paraphrased that one.

I took away the postcard SPACE printed about the show and will put it on my wall. It’s of my favorite photograph in the show: “Sailvan in Arizona (2006)”. Sometimes the simplest of objects are the most holy.

Sailvan in Arizona © Bill Daniel. All Rights Reserved.

For the hours of worship for both of these destinations, check out their websites.

© Estate of Helen Levitt. All Rights Reserved.

Not only is Mr. Rosenheim the Curator, Dept. of Photographs at the Met, but he was actually a friend of Ms. Levitt’s for over 15 years. He went to see her as a student and she kind of took him under her wing until she died last March at the age of 95. Last year he lectured on Robert Frank. The previous two years he focused on Walker Evans.

Did we get personal insights and behind-the-scenes chatter on Monday? Yeah, we sure did. Did we get a special treat? I call a “rare screening” of Levitt’s 1948 film “In the Street” (this copy was given to Mr. Rosenheim by Helen Levitt (!)) a VERY special treat. This street-photography-in-motion film is 14 minutes long and has got to be a national treasure.

Helen Levitt, 1988 © Estate of Helen Levitt. All Rights Reserved.

In 1965 Levitt published a book of photographs titled “A Way of Seeing” (you can buy a first edition here for $2400) with an essay by James Agee, her close friend. Originally scheduled for release in the 40′s, it was delayed for 20 years. It includes 50 of her earliest photographs.

I’m not going to give a short history of Levitt in this blog. There are tons of images online (that’s why this short posting took so long – I got waylaid for ages going through them again) and lots of bio material, so you can take a short course on your own.

© Estate of Helen Levitt. All Rights Reserved.

This annual lecture by Mr. Rosenheim is one of Maine Media Workshop’s annual gifts to its community. It was free, it was a chance of a lifetime, it was heaven.

© Estate of Helen Levitt. All Rights Reserved.

The newly formed  Atkinson-Porter Photography Workshops is kicking off its inaugural workshop with “The Emotional Landscape” taking place in Portland on the weekend of August 27-29. Douglas Beasley and Steffanie O’Hanlon will be the instructors.

Self-Portrait ©  Steffanie O’Hanlon. All Rights Reserved.

It sounds like a full and rewarding weekend and starts with a wine/cheese reception which I am pleased to host at VoxPhotographs, a beautiful private space overlooking Portland’s downtown historic rooftops. Besides getting to know each other, the instructors will present some of their own work at the reception and outline the details of the next day and a half of work together.

Badlands © Douglas Beasley. All Rights Reserved.

In Maine, success is built on a strong foundation of collaboration – and workshop organizers Susan Porter and Clay Atkinson are off on the right foot. Both experienced gallery owners (Atkinson recently of Domaine Gallery, and Porter of Addison-Woolley, both of Portland) Susan Porter and Clay Atkinson are also photographers themselves.

With the rest of the weekend anchored at Porter’s new Addison Woolley gallery location on Munjoy Hill, Portland will be a huge inspiration to all participants.

More workshops are planned. For more information and to register (limit 12 participants) go to: www.addisonwoolley.com.

I’m waging a one-person campaign to help artists understand it’s OKAY to say no when approached to donate your art to the umpteenth worthy cause so it can keep going. How does the artist keep going when they are giving their work away and not getting paid for it? For that matter, how does the art dealer or gallery owner make a living? We don’t.

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Pfeiffer Beach © Stacey Cramp, Courtesy of VoxPhotographs. All Rights Reserved. Jim Nickelson and Stacey Cramp are featured from July 15 -  August 28 at VoxPhotographs in a two-person show “Two Squared”.

(When the Portland Press Herald ran a front page headline story last year on the hugely popular NY Times article on Portland’s restaurants, Cramp wasn’t even mentioned. Why should she be? She was selected by the NY Times to be the photographer for the feature and about 18 of her pieces were included in what became the most e-mailed article of that day for the Times. But she became invisible when the big splash was reported as headlining news in the Portland Press Herald. Nary a word about one of Portland’s own photographers’ work making the article the success it became. Not one of her photographs was included either. Are Maine’s artists disposable?)

—–

Use the next request to starve to death (donate your work) to gently explain to the organization that they need to take a fresh look at how they are asking the arts community in Maine to sacrifice their livelihoods so their organization survives.

At VoxPhotographs my twelve exclusive artists learn from the get-go there will be no donations of their work without consulting with me, their dealer, the person who is putting everything on the line to get their work sold. And my answer will be “No.” One painter in Maine, a well-known and successful one, realized that she was getting so many requests to donate her work to non-profits in the state that it amounted to 30% of her annual output. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that is hardly conducive to putting food on the table. She now limits those donations to 2-3 each year to the causes that are closest to her heart and that respect her long decades of building a successful career  – allowing her to place a 50% reserve on the piece.

Even in Maine’s fine art photography community this disease is rampant. The new Maine Museum for Photographic Arts has asked artists to donate their work to the Museum to get the collection started while spending $18,000 on the website that will support the Museum’s cause. The highly esteemed Bakery Collective in Westbrook continues to auction over 150 donated photographs a year  to well-heeled and savvy collectors who understand this is the time and place to buy photographs in Maine because they can get them for as little as 10% what they are selling for in the artist’s gallery. That’s 150 photograph sales each year that are giving nothing back to their creators or their galleries. I left the festivities in tears two years ago.  How many photographs do you think Maine’s art collectors actually buy in a year’s time? If you answer “Not many” you will be right. Fine art photographs are considered the “affordable” art as it is. So, why not just give it away and be done with it?

You might argue it’s exposure for your work and you’re right. But the growing number of never-ending annual non-profit auctions in Maine that involve all or mostly donated art just create a bigger and bigger sinkhole under the art market -  you are giving away your livelihood and the fine arts community with it.

Why is it that artists are asked constantly to give away their work so others may survive and thrive? The bottom line is that their work isn’t taken seriously as a valuable commodity, but as something light and enjoyable and easily sacrificed.

If Maine residents want a vibrant arts community, that means committed and talented artists need to make a living at what they do and gallery owners need to sell art keep their doors open. Many arts professionals in this state refuse to attend or support these auctions and that sentiment is growing and rightly so.

If you are a serious professional who works hard to create a unique vision – stop giving your work away. Restrict yourself to one or two auctions annually that allow the artist to put a 50% reserve on the work. If there is a non-profit in Maine whose mission is close to your heart and to which you are deeply committed, then donate a piece that is not available through your gallery. But that should be a rare exception. And your dealer should be aware of and approving of this donation. Each piece of art given away means one less sale of a work of art a year. The art market in Maine is very, very small. Trust me, I know.

If you are not steel-spined enough to say no to donating your work, YOU will become the next charity, the next dinosaur, which, I might remind you, is an extinct species.

Barretts Cove, Dusk © Jim Nickelson. Courtesy of VoxPhotographs. All Rights Reserved. Jim Nickelson and Stacey Cramp are featured from July 15 -  August 28 at VoxPhotographs in a two-person show “Two Squared”.

But the images in the “Verso” part are worth a stop at CMCA alone.When Gould inherited her grandmother’s photograph collection she discovered  on the backs of many of the photographs notes that hung out there in a sort of psychological geneological space.

Verso 16, from the exhibit “Verso” © Meggan Gould. All Rights Reserved.

In the photo above, Gould makes a vertical presentation of the back of this horizontal photograph and the simplicity of the presentation is magic. You can even bring the image home on a large card that includes Gould’s contact info. on the back. It’s on our refrigerator. We love it.

(Not as successful to us was the other exhibit by Gould in the further gallery downstairs – “Recto” I guess. I felt there were 3 very strong photographs in the group and the rest – although impressive for their print quality – were more about content than photographic success.)

Back to “Verso”. I have amassed a collection of vintage postcards of Belfast. On the front of one of them the words “Why so silent?” have been penned in the sky over the village of Belfast back in the horse and buggy days of 1905 . It was mailed on June 23 (at 1 p.m.! – those were the days!) and is addressed on the back to Miss Marcia Blaney of Waldoboro. This is before postcard backs were divided to allow room for a note as well as an addressee.

As with Meggan Gould’s “Verso” photographs, we can only write the stories ourselves now. The “Can I take it.” on the back of Verso 16 gives us nothing but itself and even the lack of a question mark at the end of the note is a major factor in divining its intent. Other images of bits of paper and numbers on the backs leave much to our imaginations. “Why so silent?” makes me sad every time I even think of it, let alone see it, penned over the village of Belfast for all the world to read as the postcard made its way from the saddened sender to the silent recipient.

You have until July 17 to see the Gould exhibits, and the artist is giving a presentation on June 27 at 2 at the gallery. It’s a special exhibit that is a terrific artistic grouping and that rewards its viewers with much to think about.

“Evan – horrible day” from the exhibit “Verso” © Meggan Gould. All Rights Reserved.

Maine Media Workshops has always had a low-profile presence in Maine. And yet people come from all over the globe to attend classes with world-renowned photographers. What gives? It’s time MMW takes a leadership role in defining Maine’s own fine art photography community and this new gallery could be a terrific launching pad.

With Rockport’s  CMCA (Center for Maine Contemporary Art) ready to move forward once again under the leadership of Director Suzette McAvoy, the midcoast could become a real center for Maine’s huge, but impossibly scattered and unconnected, fine art photography community. Could MMW be the home or jumping off point for a Maine Fine Art Photography Association and opens its doors and connections to enable Maine’s own community of world-class photographers to become a powerful, organized community within the larger population of Maine’s artistic citizens? I think it could. And I think it’s time.

M. Bernard, I’le St. Louis, Paris, 1999 © Peter Turnley. All Rights Reserved.

The new MMW gallery kicks off with an exhibit of photojournalist Peter Turnley’s work – read the press release here. It mentions the role the gallery hopes to play in the revitalization of Rockport Village itself. There is a new restaurant on the street level in the building called “Shepherd’s Pie” and I bet it will become an important player in that goal as well. By the way the restaurant’s phone number is not yet listed with Directory Assistance and it will be a big help to you if I give it to you: 207-236-8500. It was not easy to get this information!!

The opening reception for Turnley and the gallery is Tuesday, June 8 from 6:30 – 8. Let’s hope it’s the beginning of something vital for Maine’s own photographic artists as well as the world’s.

Spokesperson Matt Smolinksy tells me the founders/board of directors will “raise funds for scholarships for students, grants for producing important work, and publishing work that is both previously unpublished and that we believe has significant artistic and cultural value.”

The first book published for which all proceeds from the soft cover edition will support Obscura’s goals is Brenton Hamilton’s The Blue Poet Dreams and representing ten years of Brenton’s work. Recently taken on by Susan Maasch Fine Art in Portland and Director of the Certificate Program at Maine Media Workshops, Brenton is also the state’s expert on the history of photography and a gutsy, risk-taking artist. I talk about Brenton in another posting in this category “Maine Resources I Love”. Brenton is also on the founding board of directors of OBSCURA.

What’s not to like about people committing to the future photographers among us by helping them get schooling at a higher level? As for publishing, Matt says they are planning on publishing a series of “hand-made books” that will be available next year. What a cool bunch of people to be so interested in boosting the Maine fine art photography community in this quiet, scholarly way?

Why not sign on to their great blog and newsletter at http://www.obscuraweb.org/ so you can be the first to know about their next project and help spread the word?