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The
Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is pleased to announce Photography
Now: Either/And, curated by Lesley A. Martin, Director of Content
at Aperture and Executive Editor of its Book Program. Presented in two
installments, The New Skew (June 12 – July 18) and The
New Docugraphics (July 26 – September 12), this year’s annual
exhibition goes beyond the typical survey of contemporary photography and
departs from its traditional format in the sprit of giving full credence
to the medium’s pluralities.
Ms. Martin
invites us to consider, "What defines contemporary practice? What is
it and what do we value in it? On one hand, we encounter a staunch defense
of "reality-based" photography via traditional film and camera
optics; on the other, an increase in the use of photographs – staged,
found, and digitally remixed – both strategies drawn from among many out
of the quiver of contemporary art." In organizing
this years Photography Now installment, she proposes that we
are no longer served by a zero-sum approach of "either/or" to
the medium, but rather, "either/and".
Part one, entitled The New Skew, presents the refreshingly
subversive, deeply self-reflexive and conceptual work of 10 photographers.
Opening June 12, this exhibition highlights artists who are invested in an
idiosyncratic, or skewed, take on image-making. They engage
critically with the conventions of photographic genres, series, and ways
of seeing, and create work that exists on the peripheries of traditional
photographic practice.
Part two, opening July 26, is The New Docugraphics, which
presents 10 artists chosen by Ms. Martin who are working within a
photographic practice that has become increasingly the norm – the
application of an ostensibly objective, New Topographical style as applied
to documentary topics and personal experience. They work within a
documentary framework to explore timely issues and events which enact
themselves across the largely North American landscape and the
consciousness of a globalized community.
Cynthia Bittenfield (New York, NY) and Jennifer Wilkey (Syracuse, NY) combine "straight" photographs with staged and/or found media to intimately describe the ways we deal with illness and trauma. Brook Reynolds (Charlotte, NC) and Christina Seely (San Francisco, CA) grapple with issues surrounding man’s sway over nature and expose the ways in which our seemingly benign habits obscure a darker, more complicated truth about energy consumption. Natan Dvir (New York, NY) and Eric White (New York, NY) photograph culturally and politically divided peoples as a way to direct awareness towards the ineffectual nature of borders (both physical and immaterial) and the presumptions they enforce. The work of Heather O’Brien (Brooklyn, NY) and Thomas Gardiner (Regina, Canada) express a fascination with the small town landscape and idea of home as place of transitions, where the meaning of nature and culture, as well as the real and the unreal, fluctuate. Tony Chirinos (Miami, FL) and Mike Mergen (Providence, RI) subversively probe the confluence of the sterile and organized processes behind health care and democracy, respectively, with the unexpected and odd theatricality they present for the lens.
On view during both shows will be a digital slideshow of images from their counterparts. Ms. Martin will be attending at both openings.
This exhibition was made possible in part with funds from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
The opening reception for The New Skew will be held on Saturday, June 12th from 5-7pm. The opening reception for The New Docugraphics will be held on Saturday, July 24th from 5-7pm.
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