January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus

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6 | education LECTURE/BOOK SIGNING Art or Document: Changing Perceptions of Documentary Photography Since the 1970s Thursday, February 23, 2006, 7:00pm BOSTON UNIVERSITY’S COLLEGE OF COMMUNICA- TIONS, AUDITORIUM 101, 640 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, BOSTON, MA $5 MEMBERS $10 NON-MEMBERS FREE FOR FULL-TIME STU- DENTS AND SENIORS Mark Rice, Chair of the American Studies Department at St. John Fisher College and author of Through the Lens of the City: NEA Photography Surveys of the 1970s, discusses the transformation of documentary photography in the 1970s. Dr. Rice will address the diminishing line between documentary and fine art photography facilitated by the NEA Surveys, and the lasting impact on the photo industry. Dr. Rice will be available after the lecture to sign copies of his book. Above: The cover of Mark Rice’s book Through the Lens of the City: NEA Photography Surveys of the 1970s. MASTERS WORKSHOP Creating a Documentary Project with Michael Hintlian Saturday, February 25, 10:00am-4:00pm BOSTON UNIVERSITY’S COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, ROOM 226 725 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, BOSTON, MA $55 MEMBERS/$95 NON- MEMBERS/$45 FULL-TIME STUDENTS AND SENIORS RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. PLEASE CALL 617.975.0600 Join Michael Hintlian for a day long workshop on the process of crafting a documentary project—from conception, planning, and execution to publishing the final body of work. Mr. Hintlian will spend the first portion of the workshop discussing, step-by-step, this process with examples from his recent book Digging: The Workers of Boston’s Big Dig. During the second portion of the workshop, participants may present their own projects, or project concepts for review and discussion. Above: The cover of Michael Hintlian’s book Digging PORTFOLIO REVIEWS Monthly Portfolio Reviews with the PRC Curator Review Date: Monday, February 13, 2006 CALL IN FOR RESERVATIONS AT 10 AM, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20 Review Date: Monday, March 6, 2006 CALL IN FOR RESERVATIONS AT 10 AM, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 These are the dates for 30-minute monthly portfolio reviews (and corresponding callin reservation information) with the PRC’s Curator, Leslie Brown. Reservations are still accepted on a first-call, first-served basis. It is highly recommended that you bring supporting materials (resume, images, and statement). You must be a PRC member to participate in the reviews and members are allotted one review per year.
ook review | 7 [VANISHING] Millbrook: de.MO, 2005 233 pages. Hardback. ISBN: 0-9705768-3-8. $54.00 REVIEWED BY MICHAEL CHRISTIANO, PRC EDUCATION COORDINATOR Vanishing represents a life’s work of Antonin Kratochvil’s and includes 16 powerful photoessays compiled over two decades. The images in the essays suggest the devastating effect humanity has had on its environment and on its own kind. It presents a world where people and places are poised on the verge of extinction. Included are images of cyanide gold mining in Guyana, war-torn Beirut, poaching and the black market trade in Congo, the effects of chemical waste in Louisiana, oil spills in the Ecuadorian jungle, Chernobyl, the Angolan diamond trade that funded the nation’s bloody civil war, the killing fields in Cambodia, and Iraq, among others. Kratochvil presents the human subjects of his photographs with a genuine sense of empathy and understanding. His sensibilities seem attuned to their plight and were probably honed through his own childhood experiences, having been raised under totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia. Antonin Kratochvil, Poisoned Earth, Mahdia, 2004 The black and white images presented in Vanishing are stark and compelling. Kratochvil alternates vast land and cityscapes with intimate portraits, thus capturing the breadth of afflicted environments as well as the vulnerability of individual lives. This variation in perspective is especially clear in Birds-Eye-View, an aerial view of the Dow plant in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” when compared to Poachers, a portrait of three poachers taken in the Congo. While the first image presents the magnitude of the situation, Poachers presents the explicit humanity of people who have violated the sanctity of their local flora and fauna. Michael Persson’s poetic essays deftly connect the images in the book. Persson and Kratochvil have collaborated previously and the cohesiveness of their respective contributions demonstrates a familiarity with each other’s work. Persson skillfully weaves together historical information, first person narrative from those involved, official documentation, metaphor and vivid literary imagery to provide a context for Kratochvil’s images. Persson’s words make palpable the desolation and desperation felt by many of the subjects as evidenced in the following stanza from bohemia_the memories of things lost: A fine rain falls and the afternoon, like the town, is grey. It’s grey in the sky, grey on the ground, grey in the faces of the people here. When set against Persson’s description Kratochvil’s image of Bohemians Watching Demolition, a scene depicting passers-by casually taking in the destruction of a building, possesses an even deeper psychological profile. The dusty mist that shrouds the proceedings seems to reflect the inner turmoil of the Bohemian people who have seen the past glory of their nation faded, crumbled, like the building before them. As stated in the opening essay “This body of work offers nothing in the way of answers, neither is it a sermon in hopes of brighter days.” The hope of this book comes in exposing the plight of those afflicted, both human and environment, which are inextricably connected, to the world. It suggests a hope that awareness will bring to the fore a desire to act. The only remaining question is will humanity heed the call. KRATOCHVIL LECTURES AT THE PRC ON FEBRUARY 16TH. TURN TO PAGE 6 FOR DETAILS.
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January | February 2006 - Boston Photography Focus

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