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Lisa Ahlberg at Plasteel Gallery

Lisa Ahlberg, Maggie

Join us in celebrating Photo Center alumni and board member Lisa Ahlberg‘s solo exhibition at Plasteel Gallery. Lisa has been a restless supporter of the Photo Center for many years now and we have been watching her work develop beautifully since her graduation from the Certificate Program. Please join us in supporting Lisa by attending the opening reception for On/Off Delridge at Plasteel Gallery.

Plasteel Gallery
Lisa Ahlberg: On/Off Delridge
April / May 2012

Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 7th   5 – 8 PM

3300 1st Ave South #400
Seattle, WA 98134  206.324.3379
(About 8 blocks south of Safeco Field; just before Spokane Street)

Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography


Sophia Wallace, Untitled (Purity) from the series On Beauty, 201

The Photo Center NW is pleased to announce Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography. This exhibition focuses on ten contemporary queer photographers who explore ideas of identity, gender, courage, relationships, sexuality and the human form. Scheduled to run concurrently with the Tacoma Art Museum’s HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, this exhibition sheds light on a younger generation of queer artists working in the photographic medium locally and around the country. In the spirit of celebration around queer art, the Photo Center is launching this exhibition with an exciting opening reception that will feature music, performance, youth, art and community!  The opening reception will include a fearless live performance by boylesque sensation Waxie Moon, challenging notions of gender, sexuality and performance art. With artists flying in from around the country, it will also present local folk band Tenderfoot, representatives from Queer Youth Space and A. Slaven and Adrien Leavitt, founders and DJ’s of LICK! and creators of the new queer zine, #1 Must Have, which will be available and accompanied by an installation of photos in the upstairs gallery.

EVENTS
Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography
Photo Center NW
April 5 – May 28, 2012

Opening Reception
Thursday, April 12th | 6:00 – 9:00PM
With performances and appearances by Tenderfoot, Waxie Moon, QYS and queer zine #1 must have.
After Party Party at the Wild Rose in Capitol Hill

Lecture: Kelli Connell & Sophia Wallace
Friday, April 13th, 2012 | 6:30 – 8:00PM
This lecture is in partnership with Decode Books Inc.

Lecture: Steven Miller & Adrain Chesser
Friday, May 4, 6:30pm, Tickets: $10, $8 Members

FREE Workshop for Queer Teens (FULL)
in partnership with Queer Youth Space
Sundays, 4/15, 4/22, 4/29, 5/6

Opening Reception for Teen Workshop
Open to the public, featuring performances
and artwork by local queer youth

April’s First Monday: New Topographics

Jeff Wall, Passerby, 1996

Please join us on April 2, 2012 for the third meeting of the First Mondays reading and discussion group at the Photo Center. We will be discussing a Greg Foster-Rice’s  “Systems Everywhere, ” New Topographics and the Art of the 1970s. This will be a chance to explore how the system-based approaches of these photographers has influenced ideas that underpin our practice and understanding of photography.

Click on the link below to download the reading.
Systems Everywhere (New Topographics)

FREE MEMBERSHIP GIVEAWAY

Ann Pallesen, Is your name Puggy?, 2011

We will be giving away a FREE membership this week to one lucky winner! Here’s how you can win:

1. Write a short testimonial about why you love the Photo Center (What resources do you use most? What have you learned here? Do you have a favorite class or story?) Just a few lines!

2.  Send it to Rafael Soldi at rsoldi@pcnw.org by Sunday (3/18)

3. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.

Stay tuned for more giveaways next month!

LONG SHOT: 24 Hour Photo Event

Nov-Yael-Pressing-1238pm.jpg

 

SAVE THE DATES:
June 1-2, 2012 : 24 Hour Photo Event
(participate for any amount of time!)

July 28 : Long Shot Exhibition
(one print from every participant will be included!)

LONG SHOT is an event that celebrates photography, creativity, and our greater community, while raising funds for education and outreach programs at Photo Center NW.

Once a year, for a 24-hour period, hundreds of photographers around the globe hit the streets with their cameras to capture a theme, community, or subject of their choice on behalf of the Photo Center. The result is a showcase of of thousands of photographs taken on the same day around the world, a sliver of time frozen to benefit a nonprofit photography center. Participate for a few hours, or the entire day, with your phone or your view camera — all we ask is that you seek pledges from your friends and family and help fundraise towards our education and outreach programs.

The event is open to everyone, using any camera, anywhere. At least one image from each participant will be featured in the LONG SHOT exhibition at the Photo Center.

TO SIGN UP AND LEARN MORE ABOUT LONG SHOT, CLICK HERE

Deadline for Mayor’s Arts Awards Nomination

Dear friends of the Photo Center,

We hope that you take a moment in the next month to nominate the Photo Center NW for the 2012 Mayor’s Arts Awards. We feel strongly about our candidacy and need your support in making it come true. The award relies entirely in nominations so we hope you take a moment to support us and shed light on the amazing work our community creates within our walls.

To help you out, here are some of the things we have been up to:

- The Photo Center is thriving today more than it ever has in it’s history, strengthening the community by elevating the art and appreciation of photography. It counts with a strong and committed board of directors, an A-list staff and the organization is growing at a very healthy pace.

- Our community and youth outreach programs directly impact individuals in our “backyard,” using photography as a tool for learning, healing, and creative self expression. We actively work with refugee and at-risk youth, homeless teens, cancer patients, senior citizens and Native American populations to explore their identity and tell their story through photography.

- In the past year, with your support, we have built a state-of-the-art digital media lab, which places us as one of the leading resources for photographic technology and education in the region. A brand new daylight studio is due to open this later year.

- Our gallery continues to be a community and national showcase for photography, bringing thought-provoking works of art and community programming including exhibitions that address issues such as gender and sexuality, natural disasters, historical processes, emerging talent, and even rock ‘n roll! In the past year alone the gallery has brought in Henry Horenstein, Richard Renaldi, Wyatt Gallery, Karen Irvine, Jini Dellaccio, William Hunt, Darius Himes, Dave Anderson, Todd Hido and more!

- We are serious about educating the next generation of Seattle artists. In the past year our curriculum and Certificate Program have undergone a remarkable transformation, placing us as a leader for photographic education in the region. You may notice that we now offer an array of advanced and conceptual courses that push students into a new way of thinking about photography. You may now take classes that explore the “thingness” of the world, or learn how to build constructed narratives, or assemble an advanced portfolio, or engage in a monthly critical theory discussion group.

Please consider voting for the Photo Center for this year’s Mayor’s Arts Awards, the more awareness we can bring to our programming the bigger impact we can continue to make on our community! Voting is easy and simple, just go here to nominate the Photo Center NW.

From the Photo Center staff, board, faculty and volunteers, THANK YOU!

Photo Center Staff

Q&A: MOLLY LANDRETH

Molly Landreth is a Seattle based artist who explores concepts of identity and community through intimate large-format film photography and multi-media collaboration.  She will be exhibiting new images at the upcoming exhibition Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography, which opens on April 12th at the Photo Center. She is a working photographer who creates fine art, lifestyle and portrait imagery for clients nation-wide. Landreth has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time Magazineʼs Lens Blog and in The Advocate for her ongoing body of work, “Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America,” which she continues to exhibit and speak about internationally. Landreth holds an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, New York; and a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College in California.

Check out the line up for the upcoming show, Author and Subject: Contemporary Queer Photography and her upcoming class this Spring at the Photo Center titled Gender and Sexuality in American Portraiture, click here to register now!

Your Embodiment project has gotten lots of recognition over the past few years, how did it all start? Was this project a continuation of topics you had been previously exploring or was there a specific event that sparked this interest in you?
I became really interested in ideas of gender and sexuality around the same time as I started taking (and seeking out) pictures that inspired me.  So the two worlds have always been really combined and have always worked to fuel the interest in the other. This project was a more articulated vision of something that I had been working on, and working out, for many years.  It was over due in many ways, but couldn’t have been better timed.  It emerged into the photo scene right when folks were getting very savvy with social media and that is how it became so visible so fast.  I tip my hat to the bloggers.

Molly Landreth, Cat and Brittany, Iowa City, IA

How do you deal with being labeled almost exclusively as a queer artist working with queer subjects? Is this something you support?
The great thing about the word “queer” is that its pretty hard to define by its very nature and to me it implies pushing mainstream boundaries and living creatively.  Of all labels that I could have, I feel pretty lucky to have this one.  I also believe that my community has lost too many role models throughout its history (especially in the arts) due to censorship and fear.  I want to be visible as a queer artist in response to that historic invisibility.  I think it’s important.

 

What inspires you?
Have you seen… A League of Their Own?  Well, anything with that sort of plot line.

Molly Landreth, Jesus, Dallas, TX


What is the most important thing you hope your students get out of your class, Gender and Sexuality in American Portraiture?
I hope that the Gender and Sexuality in American Portraiture class inspires them to make work that reflects their life and their passions no matter what the critics of the day have to say about it.

Register for this class now!

Molly Landreth, Katrina Cass, Cedar Rapids, IA

What’s next for Molly Landreth?
Right now I’m busy traveling, exhibiting and speaking on Embodiment – which is totally great and rewarding.  When I get a bit more time and over my fear of paper cuts I’m going to finally publish this project into a book, which has been the goal forever and ever.  As far as a new project, I have a few ideas that I’m mulling over but nothing is totally making me wild to shoot just yet.  …check back in 6 months, I think that by then the fog will have lifted.

Molly Landreth, Ducky and Her Friends, Cedar Rapids, IA

Learn more about the Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America project:

Lecture: Jesse Burke & Ariana Page Russell

We are pleased to announce a lecture night with artists Jesse Burke and Ariana Page Russell, in partnership with Platform Gallery. Join us on Friday, March 2nd at 6:30PM at the Photo Center to hear more about their latest work.Tickets: $10, $8 members

Jesse Burke, Spring Training (Nils), 2005

Jesse Burke, Spring Training (Nils), 2005

Jesse Burke, Spring Training (Thaddeus), 2005

Jesse Burke, Spring Training (Thaddeus), 2005

Ariana Page Russell, Seethe, 2010

Ariana Page Russell, Seethe, 2010

Ariana Page Russell, Tuck, 2011

Ariana Page Russell, Tuck, 2011

Ariana Page Russell, Fold, 2011

Ariana Page Russell, Fold, 2011

Jesse Burke was born in Connecticut in 1972 and now lives in Rumford, Rhode Island with his wife and their two daughters, Clover and Poppy. He received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he is currently a professor. He photographs the natural world around him as well as the men who are part of his life, to explore notions of masculinity. His work has been exhibited extensively in New York, Tokyo, Milan and Miami, as well as other international cities. He is represented in New York City by ClampArt Gallery and by Platform Gallery on the West Coast. Some of his commercial clients include Polo Ralph Lauren, Rapha cycling, Dekline shoes, W magazineESPN magazineMen’s Health and Vogue. Decode Books published his monograph Intertidal in 2008.

Ariana Page Russell lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle with an MFA in photography. Recently she’s had solo exhibitions at Magnan Metz in New York City, Platform Gallery in Seattle and Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. She has also shown at SHOWstudio SHOP in London; Henry Art Gallery, SOIL Gallery, and Gallery 4Culture in Seattle; MEME Gallery in Boston; and Schroeder Romero and Tompkins Projects in New York City. Recent press and publications include the Huffington Post, Seattle Times, The Stranger, Photo+ Magazine in Korea, ABC News 20/20, <VISION> Magazine in China, and the monograph ‘Dressing’ published by Decode Books.

LECTURE: Jesse Burke & Ariana Page Russell
Friday, March 2nd, 2011 – 6:30PM