Experimental Photography Showcase

Plus In-Person Photo Compositing Workshop!

My latest curated showcase, Experimental Photography for Thinking About Photography [dot] com is now live and runs through the end of the year. The artists in this showcase are actively engaged in practices that expand what photography can be. Some show us that the essence of photography, drawing with light, does not require a camera or even a print. Others have used the medium in joyful and emotive ways with visual layering to obscure details while embedding meaning. Additionally, from Man Ray to A.I. we have a very interesting selection of book reviews from PhotoBook Journal featuring artists who are also expanding our ideas about photography.

Artist’s Projects:

Experimental by Susan Bein
Crystal Cities by Wu Chi-Tsung
Meeting the Shadow by Sandra Klein
Elemental Forms: Landscape Rearticulated by Nadezda Nikolova
How the Light Gets In by Linda Plaisted

Photo Book Reviews:

Computational Photography by Darin Boville, reviewed by Paul Anderson
Man Ray: Liberating Photography by Nathalie Herschdorfer, reviewed by Gerhard Clausing
Machine Learning by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope, reviewed by Paul Anderson
Experimental Relationship Vol. 1 (2007-2017) by Pixy Liao, reviewed by Gerhard Clausing
High Water by Emily White, reviewed by Douglas Stockdale
Studies of Falls by Magdalena Wysocka, reviewed by Paul Anderson

Use this link if you’d like to go directly to the Experimental Photography showcase - otherwise, keep reading for information on my upcoming Workshop and more about the featured showcase artists.

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Photo Compositing Workshop: Storytelling through Visual Art

Join me in an immersive Photo Compositing Workshop designed to elevate your photography and storytelling skills. This hands-on workshop will guide you through the art of photo compositing, emphasizing the creation of compelling visual stories that engage the viewer’s imagination. Use this link for more info!

Sunday, October 20, 2024, 9:00am - 3:00pm
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center
2015 J. Street, Suite 101, Sacramento, CA

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Curating the Showcase

This showcase was a departure from the editorial calendar I had worked up at the beginning of the year. While it was great to know in advance what I was going to curate over the year - I also wanted to make sure that the showcases respond to “what’s in the air” - and everywhere I looked experimental work was catching my attention. This was especially true with the Experimental Photography Festival in Barcelona, created by photographers Laura Ligari and Pablo Giori in 2018. I loved what they were doing and it felt like a perfect fit for the showcase intro essay.

The Artists:

Susan Bein: I fell in love with her work on Instagram and even got her book Slightly Totally Bonkers which featured images she had made during Covid. Looking at her response to this time period was inspiring, and made me feel hopeful - which is what I was needing. There’s a directness in her imagery that draws me in and I feel like her experience as a graphic and book designer is part of that.

Wu Chi-Tsung: I’ve created a large list of potential artists and he was in the “Undefined and Interesting” category. Originally, I was looking at these amazing cyanotype collage paintings he’d created. When I saw his installations, they felt like an important element to bring into the showcase - no camera or print is needed to still be the essence of photography.

Sandra Klein: I’ve known Sandra for a while and always found her work to be poetic, engaging and smart - which is a fantastic combination. Recently, I was invited by the Los Angeles Center of Photography to be a “special guest” at their Member’s Portfolio Night and Sandra was showing new work. Her use of intense color, the subject matter and the dimensionality of the work all felt perfect for this showcase.

Nadezda Nikolova: She was also in my potential artists list - under “camera-less” which I knew I wanted to have represented in this showcase. I also follow her on Instagram and really love how she uses the materials of photography, in fluid ways, to create unique works.

Linda Plaisted: I found this body of work through the Center for Fine Art Photography’s Words & Pictures exhibition. One of the things I really love about the Center is that they have links for all of their artists in this group show. Her piece in the exhibition was interesting, but her collage work (on her website) felt like it would stretch the showcase. I love how she incorporates so many different elements - and somehow all they all fit together and work as a single piece.

PhotoBook Journal Reviews: The editors and contributing editors come up with a list and it’s often very hard to make the selections because I love photobooks and the work is always very strong. This time was especially difficult - and I normally decide in favor of living artists (to help promote them), but the idea of going from Man Ray (whom I was going to put in the essay) to AI helped finalize my selection.

Check out the showcase - I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do. Here’s the link for the Experimental Photography showcase.