Caracas Day 4: People Are People

Posted on March 15th, 2013

Today we finally met our students and looked at their personal work to get a sense of their abilities as photographers. I have to say I haven’t seen such a group of talented photographers in ages. Every one of them had fascinating work. The work ranged from portraiture to documentary to landscape to autobiography to travel to reportage. It was so amazing to see such strong work and meet such motivated students. Janette and I were excited to begin our…

Tagged: caracas, janette beckman, los dos caminos, photography, stella kramer, stellazine

Caracas Day 3: We Go To Petare And Find Tuki

Posted on March 11th, 2013

Tuki music is electronic music that grew out of the barrios of South America. In the same way that “punk” was a slur, so is “tuki.” The dancer we saw on YouTube, Elberth “El Maestro”, seems to be a pretty well-known dancer. Tall and skinny, with rainbow kicks, his body is like a rubberband-malleable and bendable in extraordinary ways. We watched in awe as he and the other dancers in the crew showed their stuff. All around the yard were stenciled images of Chavez: as a b-boy, dunking a basketball, ever present and being whatever people wanted him to be.

Tagged: caracas, chavez, elberth, janette beckman, petare, photography, stella kramer, stellazine, tuki

Teaching & Lecturing in Caracas at the Roberto Mata Taller de Fotografia

Posted on February 24th, 2013

I’m heading down to Caracas, Venezuela to lecture and teach for a week with the incredible Janette Beckman. Having never been there before I’m really excited, and have heard great things about the Roberto Mata Taller de Fotografia, and the students there. Stay tuned to this space for more blogging as I hope to tell you all about it, and show the work of our students.

Tagged: caracas, janette beckman, photography, roberto mata taller de fotografia, stella kramer, stellazine, venezuela

My 2012 Shout-Out

Posted on December 28th, 2012

So 2012 is finally drawing to a close, and I for one am not sorry it’s ending. In fact, good riddance! I always have ambivalent thoughts about the beginning of the New Year, but I do want to thank the people who made 2012 for me.

Tagged: aaron graubart, allegra wilde, andy lerner, angela cappetta, ashley gilbertson, axel kessler, barbara bordnick, beth chucker, bob stevens, calli macaw, chris buck, chris fitzgerald, christian kozowyk, daile kaplan, david bram, debbie zimelman, doug menuez, douglas ljunkvist, fadi asmar, fatima nejame, frank edie, gaia danieli, giovanni savino, graham jepson, heather brown, helen jones-florio, henry jacobson, Isa Leshko, isadora kosofsky, janette beckman, jasmes balog, jason florio, jason o'neal, jay trinidad, jeff jacobson, jennifer mcclure, jessie diamond, jocelyn baun, john edwin mason, joseph seif, julie grahame, julien mcroberts, kat kojic, katie baum, katrin eisman, leah nash, louie palu, lynn ursic, mackenzie edie, maiana becker pineda, mariana corporan, marko metzinger, maryann camilleri, matt slaby, micah diamond, michael shaw, mike hartley, mimi ko, noah fecks, paula tognarelli, photography, rita nannini, robert herman, roberto mata, rolando diaz, sam edie, sara terry, sarah fretwell, sari goodfriend, sean corcoran, sebasitano tomada picolomini, stella kramer, stellazine, steve giralt, terri gold, theron humphrey, tony gale, wally mason, wayne parsons

The Favorite Photo Shows of 2012

Posted on December 17th, 2012

I suppose that we all look back at this point and try to remember the high points of the year. And so I asked around and these were the photo shows that people loved in 2012. The great thing about this list is that it spans the world. Enjoy!

Just say “YES”

Posted on November 29th, 2012

How do you handle adversity? Do you lie down and accept the bad turn of events or do you mobilize against it and try things you’ve been afraid of to reap possible benefits? Your choice can be the difference between success and failure. In their APA presented talk, Recovery Act: The Restoration and Reinvention of a Photography Career, William and Susan Brinson give us a look at what can happen when you have nowhere to go but up. It was…

Tagged: apa, blog, branding, creative strategy, facebook, house of brinson, photographers, photography, photography career, reinvention, social media, stella kramer, stellazine, susan brinson, twitter, william brinson

Chasing Ice: The Memory of Landscape

Posted on November 19th, 2012

Until Hurricane Sandy came through New York, I always thought about climate change in a disassociated kind of way. It is obvious to me that it is a serious problem with catastrophic effects, but I don’t think I really grasped the full extent of what is happening to the planet until I saw “Chasing Ice,” Jeff Orlowski’s film about James Balog’s project recording the disappearing glaciers. I first came to photographer James Balog’s work when I saw his book, “Anima,”…

Tagged: anima, chasing ice, climate change, extreme ice survey, glacier, glaciers, iceland, james balog, landscape, photography, photoplus expo 2012, solheim glacier, stella kramer, stellazine

Shenandoah

Posted on November 15th, 2012

Photo of Crystal Dillman by Jacqueline Dormer, The Republican Herald. In David Turnley’s “Shenandoah“, a small town in eastern Pennsylvania is forced to deal with the fallout of a murder committed by several of its HS football players. In July 2008, Luis Ramirez, an undocumented immigrant from Iramurco, Mexico was chased, beaten, stomped and killed by a group of white teenage boys shouting racial slurs. The local police in the tight-knit town covered up the crime, not even investigating it.…

Tagged: David Turney, docnyc, documentary, filmmaker, murder, photography, photojournalist, Shenandoah, stella kramer, stellazine

VII Uncomissioned

Posted on November 12th, 2012

The DOCNYC festival is back, and this year there are more documentaries about and by photographers. I’ve seen the first ones, VII Uncomissioned and Men At Lunch, one a selection of shorts by members of the photo agency, and the other dissecting the iconic photo of men sitting on a steel beam high above Manhattan in 1932. VII Uncomissioned begins with “On The Line,” a piece by Ashley Gilbertson about a suicide hotline for veterans. Using still images and audio,…

Tagged: ashley gilbertson, docnyc, documentary, ed kashi, joachim ladefoged, marcus bleasdale, massacre at utoya, mirror, on the line, photography, photojournalisms, seamus murphy, stella kramer, stellazine, VII photo

After the Hurricane

Posted on November 8th, 2012

I was going to post a PhotoPlus Expo wrap up last week, but I, like many other New Yorkers lost power for nearly five days (and we know so many others STILL don’t have power). So it makes no sense now. What I would like to talk about it how to keep going when things seem bleak. We all lost whatever momentum we had prior to the storm, and in dealing with basic survival needs it was easy to feel…

Tagged: hurrucane sandy, photography, stella kramer, stellazine

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