New Book: Photographers Looking at Photographs

Photographers Looking at Photographs, Pier 24, 2019

 

Alex and I are honored to be part of this wonderful new book, Photographers Looking at Photographs, edited by Pier 24’s Allie Haeusslein, a kind of creative conversation with John Szarkowski’s famous book, Looking at Photographs, in which the noted MOMA curator wrote about 100 photographs from the museum’s collection. We were among 75 photographers chosen—including Mark Steinmetz, Mimi Plumb, Jim Goldberg, Deborah Luster, Alec Soth, Catherine Opie, Hank Willis Thomas, Linda Connor, Robert Polidori, and An-My Le—to write about photographs from the Pilara Foundation collection. Alex and I wrote about two of our photographic inspirations—Josef Koudelka for Alex, Wright Morris for me.—Rebecca Norris Webb

To learn more about this book—including details about how to order it online—please follow this link.

On Press: My Dakota 3

David Chickey, "My Dakota: Signing the Jacket"

Nice that the first day of the press check in Singapore for Rebecca’s “My Dakota” book started with the dust jacket (see above).  Another bit of luck: Like with the press check for “Violet Isle,” we have the master pressman again, Simon (see below), who has managed to capture the luminosity of Rebecca’s elegiac prints.  So far, the press check is going well.––Alex Webb

©Alex Webb: On Press with Simon, David Chickey and Rebecca for "My Dakota"

©Alex Webb, "On Press with My Dakota: Crazy Horse photo"

On Press: My Dakota 2

As I am preparing emotionally and mentally to be on press tomorrow, I can’t help but think of the metaphor of childbirth with regards to bringing a new book into the world.  Perhaps it’s because I come from a long line of doctors –– my father is fifth generation doctor, my younger sister, sixth generation — but I don’t see myself as the mother, but as the midwife or the doctor, attending to the work, helping to deliver the work into the world,  Perhaps that’s also because this new book, as personal as it is for me, isn’t me.  It’s wiser than I am.  It’s more than I am.  It’s more important than I am.  

My task these next few days on press –– along with the book’s designer and Radius”s creative director, David Chickey, and Alex, who helped me sequence the photographs –– will be to try to deliver the work into the world, and to deliver it alive, as the poet Ezra Pound once said about poetry.  Isn’t that always the task:  To keep enough of the flaws and the contradictions and the cracks and the complexity and the tensions in a book, which are a book’s life’s blood?  Or perhaps I just like the irony of using the metaphor of childbirth in a book that deals with death…––Rebecca Norris Webb

Alex Webb, "Rebecca writing, 2012"

NOVEMBER EVENTS: Paris, Munich, Brooklyn

Alex Webb, Kampala, Uganda, 1980, from "The Suffering of Light"

––BOOK SIGNING AT PARIS PHOTO @ THE GRAND PALAIS

SATURDAY, NOV. 12, 4:30 @ APERTURE BOOTH, E26

Join us for a book signing of Alex’s new book, THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT (exhibition opening @ Aperture in New York, Thursday, Dec. 8th), and our joint Cuba book, VIOLET ISLE  (exhibition currently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, until January 16th, 2012; Radius Books expects VIOLET ISLE to be sold out by the end of the year).  We will post other book signings and activities we’ll be involved in @ Paris Photo –– which this year celebrates African photography –– as we finalize our schedule.  Here is a link to more Aperture book signings at Paris Photo this year, including a signing by one of Rebecca’s favorite photographers, Rinko Kawauchi.—Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

––ALEX WEBB LECTURE IN MUNICH

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18TH.   For more information (only in German), please follow this link.  Alex will be speaking as part of a conference.

––REBECCA NORRIS WEBB  @ THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

Rebecca will join a group of filmmakers, writers, and other photographers involved in the Brooklyn project, “Jump Rope Girls,” a project started by journalist, SUSAN HARTMAN, for an article she did for The New York Times 23 years ago about a group of girls who were expert Double Dutch jumpers at a time when their Brooklyn neighborhood was particularly troubled.  A generation later, Hartman — with a group of documentary filmmakers and photographers — has continued to follow three of the four young women and their extended family and community, including Savannah (below), whom Rebecca has been photographing this past year, a process that’s taking her back to her photographic roots –– she started out in photography photographing children at play in New York, influenced by the street work of Helen Levitt and the portraits of Sally Mann.–Alex Webb

Information:

Jump Rope Girls, 23 Years On

Wed., November 30, 2011    7:00 pm    Free

Brooklyn Public Library     10 Grand Army Plaza   MAP IT

2/3 trains at Grand Army Plaza

Refreshments by Salsa Catering.

Rebecca Norris Webb, "Communion," Brooklyn, 2011

WEBB WORKSHOP UPDATE: TWO NEW WORKSHOPS

––ONE DAY WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NY: Saturday, December 17, 2011
––CUBA: STREETS OF HAVANA, Nordic Light Workshop: JANUARY 2012

Alex Webb, Havana, 2009, from "Violet Isle"

––ONE-DAY WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NYC

with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

Saturday, December 17, 10-5 pm; includes public gallery talk with Alex Webb about his Aperture exhibition, THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT from 4 to 5 pm.

$225; $175 for full time photography students and Aperture members

Do you know where you’re going next with your photography –– or where it’s taking you?  This intensive one-day workshop will help photographers begin to understand their own distinct way of seeing the world.  It will also help photographers figure out their next step photographically  –– from deepening their own unique vision to the process of discovering and making a long-term project that they’re passionate about.

A workshop for serious amateurs and professionals alike, this one-day workshop will begin Saturday  morning with reviews of each photographer’s work, serving as a jumping off point for a larger discussion about various photographic issues. Alex and Rebecca, a creative team who often edit projects and books together –– including their book and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exhibition, “Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba” –– will explore with the class a series of topics, including the process of photographing spontaneously and intuitively; how to photograph in cultures other than one’s own; how to edit photographs intuitively; the emotional and psychological implications of working in color vs. black and white; the difference between images in a book and images on the wall; and how long-term projects can evolve into books and exhibitions. Participants should be prepared to ask questions, as these concerns will help shape the ultimate direction of the workshop.

This one-day workshop is for documentary photographers, street photographers, art photographers, and others who photograph the world with a camera –– not for those who dramatically alter their photographs digitally.  

WHAT PHOTOGRAPHERS SHOULD BRING: About 30 photography prints (can be inexpensive 5×7  or 8×10  work prints; we are most interested in the image not the quality of the print).  For those who are working in a series or on a long-term project, feel free to bring one or two projects.

Class limit: 20

To enroll for the workshop and pay the workshop fee (there is a discounted rate for full-time photography students, Aperture Patrons, and SNAP! members), please follow this link to the Aperture site. For more information, contact Rebecca at rebeccanorriswebb@yahoo.com.

––THE STREETS OF HAVANA with NORDIC LIGHT

Sunday, January 22, 2012 to Saturday, January 28, 2012; possible second week, Jan. 29-Feb. 5 

Havana workshop, organized by Norway’s Nordic Light Photography Festival.  For more information, follow this link.

Rebecca Norris Webb, Havana, 2008, from "Violet Isle"

WOODSTOCK: Webb Slide Talk Saturday, August 27th

Alex Webb, cover of "The Suffering of Light," Aperture, 2011

Please join us on Saturday, August 27th, at the CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AT WOODSTOCK, for our slide talk and book signing, “Together and Apart,” at 8pm.

You’ll also find a new audio piece about our “Violet Isle” exhibition at the MFA, Boston, at this link.

We’ll have more soon about Alex’s upcoming Aperture show later this fall in New York, as well as September gallery openings in Chicago and Boston.––Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

WEBB WORKSHOP UPDATE 

There are two spaces left for the BOOK WEEKEND WITH RADIUS BOOKS the third weekend in September in Santa Fe, which will involve both David Chickey, the prize-winning book designer and creative director of Radius Books, and Darius Himes, Radius editor and noted photo book expert. Please contact me at the below email ASAP if you’re interested in attending. Former Webb Workshop participants are invited to apply without submitting a portfolio, but other photographers will be considered as well.  For more information, please visit this link on the Magnum Events page.  This workshop is not only a great way to support your own long-term project, but also Rebecca’s upcoming “My Dakota” book as well.–Alex Webb (email: rnorriswebb@yahoo.com)

NEW BOOK: Book Launch @ Aperture, June 1st

Alex Webb, cover of "The Suffering of Light" (Aperture), with an essay by Geoff Dyer

 

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Alex’s new book, The Suffering of Light, at Aperture at 6:30pm, which will include a conversation with photographer and critic Max Kozloff and a booksigning afterwards. (To take a look inside Alex’s new book, follow this link to the PhotoEye site.) And here’s a link to a portfolio of Alex’s work from the new book on the La Lettre site, courtesy of the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, which will have a joint show of our work on Saturday, September 17th, from 2-4pm.

And below you’ll find a rough, homemade video of our Violet Isle show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, an exhibition mentioned in The New York Times on Sunday and reviewed in The Boston Globe on Tuesday, May 31st.   For those who are part of the “Two Looks” online community, please let us know if you get a chance to see Violet Isle at the MFA, Boston, which will be up until January 16, 2012.

By the way, if you visit the MFA by June 16th, be sure and stop by and see the photography show, “Conversations: Photography from the Bank of America Collection,” which includes work by such noted photographers as Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Julia Margaret Cameron, Wright Morris, Alec Soth, William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Mitch Epstein, Larry Sultan, Mike Smith, and Helen Levitt.–Rebecca Norris Webb

Notes on “The Suffering of Light” @ Time.com

Alex Webb, "Erie, Pennsylvania, 2010," from "The Suffering of Light"

Perhaps it’s the poet in me, but I love the irony of being able to hold in my hands a series of intangible moments — and Alex’s new book of 30 years of color work is no exception.  

To see a slide show of images  — including the one above from Erie, Pennsylvania, which was the last photograph Alex took for THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT during a road trip with me driving from New York to South Dakota last summer, and, appropriately, the last photograph in the book — and to read Alex’s notes on the bookmaking process, please follow this link to TIME.COM, where you can also leave your comments.

In addition, here’s a link to an excerpt of the Geoff Dyer essay about Alex in the book, an excerpt recently posted on the GUARDIAN website.

For those in the New York area, please join us for the book launch of THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT at Aperture Foundation, 547 W. 27th on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1st at 6:30pm, which will include a conversation with noted critic Max Kozloff as well as a book signing. Alex and I hope to see many of you there.–Rebecca Norris Webb

TWO VIEWS: Alex at Alcobendas

Alex Webb, "Fort Sherman, Panama, 1999" from "The Suffering of Light"

Alex and I are in Alcobendas, Madrid, this week for the opening of his exhibition, “Selecciones: 1975-2004,” which was the result of his winning the Premio Internacional de Fotographia Alcobendas last year.  For our friends in Spain, hope you can help us celebrate Alex’s opening at the Centro de Arte Alcobendas at 7:30 pm on Thursday, May 12th.

For the TWO VIEWS column this month,  below is another one of my rough, homemade videos of our curating a wall of the exhibition this afternoon, even though we were somewhat jetlagged from a night flight from New York (Talk about intuitive editing!). And secondly, above you’ll find a rather mysterious image of Alex’s from his Alcobendas exhibition — and one that’s also in his new book — that was taken in Ft. Sherman, Panama, in 1999, a photograph of a U.S. military jungle warfare training camp.

Lastly, I’d like to leave you with a quote I came across this evening from one of my favorite poets, the Spanish poet Lorca, a quote which seems a fitting end to our first day in Madrid:  “Only mystery allows us to live, only mystery.”–Rebecca Norris Webb

WEBBWORKS: Alex’s Book, Rebecca’s Poem

We’re back in Brooklyn, and wanted to give our TWO LOOKS online community the first glimpse of two new WebbWorks:  Alex’s first advance copy of his survey book, THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT, and a new poem Rebecca recently wrote on a ranch in South Dakota for her upcoming book, MY DAKOTA, which is a photographic elegy for her brother, Dave.   Again, we both apologize for our rough, at times out-of-focus homemade videos (Unfortunately, the IPOD touch doesn’t focus very precisely, not to mention Rebecca’s shivering hands in the -15 F Dakota blizzard.)

Alex’s book will be available May 1 from Aperture (US), Thames and Hudson (UK), Contrasto (Italy), and Textuel (France).  We will keep you posted about upcoming book signings and other events in May and June in New York, Madrid, London, Boston, and Charlottesville.—Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

UNBOUND at VERGE ART BROOKLYN

Dimitri Mellos, cover of "Its Strangest Patterns"

It’s common to celebrate the birth of a photographer’s new photo book at a gallery exhibition.  Instead, the UNBOUND exhibition at the CAPTION GALLERY — during the inaugural VERGE ART BROOKLYN festival the first week in March this year — celebrates the long and often arduous labor — with its joys and pangs and meanderings — that accompanies the process of making a photo book.  For those who’d like a window into this at times difficult, at times mysterious bookmaking process, please stop by and visit UNBOUND, a show that features the fruits of  the labor of last fall’s intense, intimate, and now annual PHOTO PROJECT WORKSHOP.  The opening reception for UNBOUND will be Thursday, March 3d, from 9-10:30 pm during the first night of the Verge Art Brooklyn, a festival that coincides with the annual Armory Show this year.  The UNBOUND exhibition will run until the end of May 2011.

At the time of this writing, the UNBOUND photographers include DIMITRI MELLOS, NICOLE LECORGNE, FRANK HACK, S.M. MAES, GUILLERMO DE YAVORSKY, SHAUN ROBERTS, CHRIS CHADBOURNE, and JASON TANNER.  We so appreciate their willingness to exhibit a work-in-progress (one framed print and one designed cover or book spread), that we decided to join them, with work from our two upcoming books: Alex’s The Suffering of Light: 30 Years of Photographs (Aperture/T&H UK/Edition, May 2011) and Rebecca’s My Dakota (Radius Books, 2012). There will be more details about the opening on the blog on Monday, February 28th, the week of the VERGE ART BROOKLYN festival.—Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

For more about the next Photo Project Workshop at the Caption Gallery the last week in October, 2011, please visit Alex and Rebecca’s website.  To learn more about their upcoming editing workshop at LOOK3 photography festival in June, please visit LOOK3. For those interested in a photographing workshop, there are two places left in the Barcelona: Finding Your Vision workshop the last week in March. Lastly, here’s the link to the London Telegraph online’s Q&A with Alex and Rebecca.

Nicole LeCorgne, cover of "Divinity Street: The Moulids of Cairo"