In The News by Barbara Justice

Two photographers have been brought to my attention because of seeing them in the news. The first is named Willy Ronis who passed away today or yesterday. His images, along the same lines of Atget, document the everyday happenings of French people in the city, at home, walking, eating, drinking. Lately I have become interested in documentary photography and questioning how it and fine art can be classified as the same thing. Maybe these photographers like Ronis, Atget, Abbot and others were documenting for the sake of keeping a memory or data bank of the times they lived in. How and when did photography become fine art? It was invented to capture a moment as a keepsake. Well if anyone has a chance, look at his images. This image here is his photograph. The light, composition, subject matter make me think that he was thinking fine art and maybe relating this image to classic paintings.

Another photographer I have been hearing alot about lately is Annie Leibowitz because of her bankruptcy and rights to her images. She is awsome. I am biased because I love her work and her life story and her beginnings at Rolling Stone and her attitude. She rocks. But...selling the rights to her photographs? She must feel terrible, I hope she wins this battle. She has a great book called Annie Leibowitz: A Photographers Life 1990-2005 which is definately worth making a trip to the library for.

I went back to Joan Grona Gallery and spent more time with Samandari's photos. I looked at them each. I looked at them as a group, I stared them down so they would say something back to me and they did. I didn't focus on one because they were all equal to me. Not meaning this to be taken wrong, but once I saw one, I saw all of them. The imagery within the imagery is what told the story. The figures in each were helpless and hopeful. Really I was thinking how much more feeling I would have taken from them had they been silver-gelatin prints and not digital prints. I wanted to see the artist put as much emotion into his printing methods as he did his imagery. Plus that border thing didn't add anything to them either.

I was able to attend Libby's artist talk on Thursday at Satellite Space. Libby's story about her childhood and growing up as a tomboy really made me think about what a relateable artist she is. Sometimes I see artists trying to create their ideas and imagery, but really these things can come from personal experiences and life. Libby gives viewers a hint of what her personal experience is through her images. It makes me think of the art and the artist as one component, not two seperate components.