MAGNUM SQUARE PRINT THRU NOV. 4

 

©Alex Webb, “Kochi, India, 2014,” part of “Conditions of the Heart” Magnum Square Print Sale, through Friday, November 4, 2016

“Connection in photography can take many forms. While one typically thinks of the connection in photographing people one knows, there can also be a kind of intimacy with a place or a culture itself. As a street photographer, it is this latter connection that intrigues me. Over the years, I’ve learned that each culture demands its own unique and complicated approach—often with many nuanced variations—in order to photograph the life of its streets. For instance in Mumbai, people sometimes seem so interested in strangers, one may later discover smiling faces peering into the edges of one’s photographs. However, in a city such as Kochi in southern India where I took this photograph, one may also encounter unexpected quieter moments.

Ultimately, no matter how gently and respectfully one tries to photograph in a culture other than one’s own, how long a street photographer can linger is largely thanks to the grace of others.”—Alex Webb

THROUGH FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2016, you can buy Alex’s “Kochi, India, 2014,” a signed archival 6×6-inch print, online at the Magnum Square Print Sale at this link.

La Calle: New York Times Lens Blog

“We come from a culture that in its roots comes out of Protestantism, capitalism and individualism,” Mr. Webb said. “Mexico’s roots lie in Spanish Catholicism, the indigenous world and a communal culture. Mexican culture seems to embrace mystery.”—from “Capturing Complexity and Color in Mexico,” by James Estrin, New York Times Lens Blog. You can read the rest of the New York Times Lens Blog article here.

FALL WORKSHOPS:

—PHOTO PROJECT 2016: NYC: Sunday October 16-Friday October 21, 2016 Do you want to spend an intensive week in New York editing and sequencing a photographic project you’re passionate about—and working with a designer on a cover? This intimate workshop (no more than 10 photographers) is taught by Alex and Rebecca who together and apart have published some 17 books. The Webbs will also discuss other aspects of bookmaking and publishing with you, including how text might be incorporated into your project, how to find a possible writer for your project, and the synergy between books and exhibitions.

HOW TO APPLY: Please email 10 jpgs (72 dpi, 1080 on longest side) from your project or email an online link to it; also include a short project description (250 words or less), and a short bio (100 words or less) to Alex and Rebecca, with the words PHOTO PROJECT 2016: NYC on the email’s subject line: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

—FINDING YOUR VISION AT THE MIAMI STREET PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL, November 29-December 2, 2016, Miami, Florida.  You can enroll online here: 

 

 

ALEX WEBB: SELECTIONS at Photo London

Alex Webb, Bombardopolis, Haiti, 1986, from “Alex Webb: Selections” at Photo London, Leica at Navy Board Room, Somerset House, thru May 22

LEICA BLOG: The photographs to be shown at Photo London encompass a great portion of your career, including the work comprised in three of your published books. How did you curate ‘Selections’?

ALEX WEBB: I simply chose some of my favorite images — including some of the same images Rebecca and I have hanging in our home in Brooklyn.

Read the rest of Leica’s Q&A with Alex here.

We hope to see some of you at Photo London from May 18-22, for our joint talk, “Slant Rhymes,” two weekend book signings, and Alex’s Selections exhibition at Somerset House in the Navy Board Room.  On Wednesday, May 18, starting at 1pm GMT, we are also pleased to be sharing the Instagram Takeover at Leica Camera, and fielding some of your questions from 2:30-3pm GMT that day @leica_camera.—Rebecca

 

ONLY A FEW SPOTS LEFT IN THESE TWO JUNE WORKSHOPS

—Finding Your Vision: Milan, a five-day workshop in Italy in June with Alex and Rebecca.  Follow this link to apply online.

—Finding Your Vision: London, a weekend workshop in June.  Follow this link to enroll online.

©

FIRST WEBB WORKSHOP IN POLAND

©Alex Webb from “The Suffering of Light,” Aperture and Thames and Hudson

“We do not really know what draws a human being out into the world. Is it curiosity? A hunger for experience? An addiction to wonderment? The man who ceases to be astonished is hollow, possessed of an extinguished heart. If he believes that everything has already happened, that he has seen it all, then something most precious has died within him—the delight in life.” ― the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński, one of Alex’s favorite writers

FIRST WEBB WORKSHOP IN POLAND JUST ANNOUNCED.  This four-day MAGNUM PHOTOS WORKSHOP will coincide with the FOTOFESTIWAL LODZ in early June.  Space is limited, and this workshop is expected to sell out rather quickly:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAXO31_3&VBID=2K1HZOQ8V31HKN&IID=2K1HRG5YYKK6&PN=31

©Rebecca Norris Webb from “Memory City” (with Alex Webb), Radius Books, US, Thames and Hudson, Europe, June 2014

 

“Rochester, in upstate New York, has been the home of Kodak since the company’s start in 1888. When it declared bankruptcy in 2012, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb decided to use film made by the company to shoot the city. For the project, Webb used his last rolls of Kodachrome, the famous but now-discontinued film, developing it as hazy black and white since its special color process is no longer available. The results look like any struggling but hopeful city, quiet but proud.”—Rebecca Robertson, ART News

11 Edgy New Photo Books That Will Make You Look (and Think) Twice

ALEX AND REBECCA’S UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

—NEW WORKSHOP ADDED: FINDING YOUR VISION: SAN FRANCISCO, SAT. AUG. 23 THRU WED. AUG. 27, 2014, Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission Street, San Francisco: For more information, please contact Alex and Rebecca:

webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

——Saturday May 3 thru Friday May 10, FINDING YOUR VISION, NEW YORK.

——DUE TO A CANCELLATION, THERE’S NOW ONE SPOT left in this annual May workshop. To apply, please contact Alex and Rebecca directly at this email:

webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

——Finding Your Vision @ FOTOFESTIWAL LODZ, POLAND, a four-day MAGNUM PHOTOS WORKSHOP, Sunday June 1-Wed. June 4th: http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAXO31_3&VBID=2K1HZOQ8V31HKN&IID=2K1HRG5YYKK6&PN=31

LINKS, REVIEWS, ARTICLES, AND MORE:

——Link to NEW YORK TIMES LENS blog Q&A with Jim Estrin & Alex and Mound Bayou slide show:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/alex-webb-looks-back-in-black-and-white/?smid=tw-share

——ALEX’S PHOTOGRAPHS FROM INDIA’S KUMBH MELA IN FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/kumbh-mela/spinney-text

 

Memory City in ART News

©Alex Webb, “Dancehall, Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY, 2013,” from “Memory City” (with Rebecca Norris Webb), Radius Books, late spring 2014

“Rochester, in upstate New York, has been the home of Kodak since the company’s start in 1888. When it declared bankruptcy in 2012, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb decided to use film made by the company to shoot the city. For the project, Webb used his last rolls of Kodachrome, the famous but now-discontinued film, developing it as hazy black and white since its special color process is no longer available. The results look like any struggling but hopeful city, quiet but proud.”—Rebecca Robertson, ART News

http://www.artnews.com/2014/02/13/11-edgy-art-books-document-the-bizarre-bygone-and-adorable/

TO PRE-ORDER “MEMORY CITY” FROM RADIUS BOOKS (both trade edition and limited edition): 

http://radiusbooks.org/7430/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-memory-city/

NEW WORKSHOP JUST ADDED: Finding Your Vision @ Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm, Saturday, June 7th-Wed. June 11, 2014:  http://fotografiska.eu/kurser/kurs/alex-webb-and-rebecca-norris-webb/

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Blue Secondhand Prom Dress, Rochester, NY, 2012,” from “Memory City” (with Alex Webb), Radius Books, late spring 2014

LINKS, REVIEWS, ARTICLES, WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS AND MORE:

——Link to NEW YORK TIMES LENS blog Q&A with Jim Estrin & Alex and Mound Bayou slide show:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/alex-webb-looks-back-in-black-and-white/?smid=tw-share

——ALEX’S PHOTOGRAPHS FROM INDIA’S KUMBH MELA IN FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/kumbh-mela/spinney-text

——Saturday May 3 thru Friday May 10, FINDING YOUR VISION, NEW YORK.  ONLY ONE SPOT left in this annual workshop. For more information including how to enroll, please visit: 

https://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAXO31_3&VBID=2K1HZOQ8HF290Z&IID=2K1HRG8E8ABS&PN=3

——Friday, Dec. 13 thru Feb. 22, 2014: BEFORE THE SHIFT: The Early Black-and-White Work of Alex Webb, Lynne Cohen, Martin Parr, and Stephen Shore at at the Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago; opening reception with Alex, Friday, Dec. 13, 5:30-8pm:

http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_display.asp?EventID=2&Exhibit=Currrent&ExhibitID=175

 

©Alex Webb, “Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 1976,” reprinted in the NYTimes Lens Blog

TWO LOOKS: NYTimes, Nat’l Geographic

©Alex Webb, Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 1976

Q. Jim Estrin, New York Times Lens Blog:

Had you ever been to Mississippi before? Was it similar to anything you had seen before or different?

A.  Alex Webb:

It was my first trip to Mississippi. I had photographed in some small towns in Alabama prior to visiting Mound Bayou; however, those towns were segregated — unlike Mound Bayou, there were no black town officials, no black police officers, and if there were black-owned businesses, they were in the black part of town.

Visiting Mound Bayou for the first time, I was completely unprepared for the intensity of the emotional experience of being welcomed and embraced by a culture so different than my own. I recall one moment when Ellie, the woman whom I first met at Smitty’s, suddenly turned to me, reached up and put her two hands on either side of my head and said, “I ain’t never touched the hair of a white man before.” Needless to say, as a young, white kid from Cambridge, Mass., I was stunned and deeply moved.

Link to read the rest of the Q&A with Jim Estrin and see the complete Mound Bayou slide show:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/alex-webb-looks-back-in-black-and-white/?smid=tw-share

ALEX’S PHOTOGRAPHS FROM INDIA’S KUMBH MELA IN FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE:

 

 

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/kumbh-mela/spinney-text

 

©Alex Webb, Kumbh Mela in February 2014 issue of National Geographic Magazine

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS,  AND TALKS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA:

——Saturday May 3 thru Friday May 10, FINDING YOUR VISION, NEW YORK.  A few spots left in this annual workshop. For more information including how to enroll, please visit: 

https://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAXO31_3&VBID=2K1HZOQ8HF290Z&IID=2K1HRG8E8ABS&PN=3

——Friday, Dec. 13 thru Feb. 22, 2014: BEFORE THE SHIFT: The Early Black-and-White Work of Alex Webb, Lynne Cohen, Martin Parr, and Stephen Shore at at the Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago; opening reception with Alex, Friday, Dec. 13, 5:30-8pm:

http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/exhibit_display.asp?EventID=2&Exhibit=Currrent&ExhibitID=175

 

©Rebecca Norris Webb, Junipers, from A Field Guide to Silence

A shelter

or a ship

these junipers?

 

A black bough flies into the night.

Now even the snow

is the shadow of an owl.

—Rebecca Norris Webb, from “A Field Guide to Silence”

ICP/Magnum: Capa at 100

©Robert Capa, 1942

“When I think of Robert Capa’s work, his classic photographs come to mind — the Spanish soldier, the D-Day landing, the mourning women in Naples — photographs of clearly defined moments of dramatic intensity.  They are also all black and white photographs.  So it was surprising for me to come upon this almost bucolic color image of cows placidly grazing in front of a U.S. bomber in Britain during the Second World War.   This juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements — a quiet rural scene with the looming threat of violence in the background (after all, the plane is a weapon of mass destruction) — suggests the complicated and very human experience of life during a time of conflict.

Capa’s image brings to mind this scene I photographed some 20 years ago of a mirror vendor waiting on an isolated landing strip near the small town of Palmapampa during the conflict between the Peruvian military and the guerilla group Sendero Luminoso.”— Alex Webb

from Magnum Photos/ICP  #GetCloser100 Project, Day 28. http://getcloser.magnumphotos.com

©Alex Webb, 1993, from “The Suffering of Light,” Aperture

Leica Store Miami/Artisan Obscura Scholarship

 One tuition-free scholarship to attend the upcoming Finding Your Vision @ Leica Store Miami weekend workshop with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, Jan. 17-19, 2014

Open to all photographers 18 and older, professionals and serious amateurs alike.  Work by all kinds of photographers will be considered — from art photographers to documentary photographers, from college students to seasoned professionals — the only stipulation being that none of the images submitted have been dramatically altered digitally.

 Scholarship Application Opens: Friday, Nov. 15, 2013

Deadline: Friday, November 29, 2013

Notification of winner: Saturday, December 7, 2013 

JUDGES: MaryAnne Golon, Washington Post Director of Photography and photographers Maggie Steber, Alex Webb, and Rebecca Norris Webb

TO ENROLL:  Please submit the following materials to the email address — webbnorriswebb@gmail.com — and write WORKSHOP SCHOLARSHIP on the subject line.

A. In the email, please include the following as a single word doc:

1. Name and email

2. 100 word statement about your series or project

3. 100 word bio, which includes your photographic background and website or online link to your photographs

4. Two names and emails of references of people familiar with your photographic work, such as professors, workshop teachers, fellow photographers, editors, curators, publishers.

B. Additionally, in this email please also attach 10 small jpgs from one project or series, each image10 inches on the longest side, 72 dpi

©Rebecca Norris Webb, from “Violet Isle” (with Alex Webb) at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL, thru Feb. 2, 2014

“Our landscapes contain every part of us, Webb seems to say, the broken and the whole.”—Scott Gast, Orion Magazine review of “My Dakota,” November/December 2013 issue

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, AND TALKS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA:

——Friday Jan. 17 thru Sunday Jan. 19, FINDING YOUR VISION @ LEICA STORE MIAMI.  Places are limited in this new weekend workshop in Miami.  For more more information, including how to enroll, please visit: 

http://www.leicastoremiami.com/collections/workshops-classes-and-trips/products/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-workshop-finding-your-vision-fri-sat-sun-jan-17-19-2014

——Saturday May 3 thru Friday May 10, FINDING YOUR VISION, NEW YORK.  For more information including how to enroll, please visit: 

http://www.webbnorriswebb.co/#mi=4&pt=0&pi=3

——Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 thru Feb. 2, 2014, “My Dakota” and “Violet Isle” at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL:

“Violet Isle”: 

http://www.smponline.org/ex_webb_violet.html#.Unzv1I3z0XQ

“My Dakota”: 

http://www.smponline.org/ex_webb_dakota.html#.UlVhFBZqN4Y

PUBLIC TALKS IN DECEMBER:  Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Leica Store Miami and Thursday, Dec. 5th at the Miami Street Photography Festival

NEW WORKSHOP ADDED: Miami in January

©Rebecca Norris Webb, from “Violet Isle and My Dakota” at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL, thru Feb. 2; also in “Together and Apart: The Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb” at the Leica Store Miami, which opens Dec. 3

FINDING YOUR VISION with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

WEEKEND WORKSHOP @ LEICA STORE MIAMI, Friday evening January 17 thru Sunday afternoon  January 19, 2014

Do you know where you’re going next with your photography –– or where it’s taking you?  This intensive weekend 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, as well as the process of how long-term projects evolve into books and exhibitions. A workshop for serious amateurs and professionals alike, it will taught by Alex and Rebecca, a creative team who often edit projects and books together –– including their joint book and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exhibition, “Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba,” Alex’s recent Aperture book, “The Suffering of Light,” Rebecca’s new third book, “My Dakota,” and their upcoming joint book on Rochester, film and time, “Memory City.”

Included in the workshop will be an editing exercise as well as an optional photography assignment or long-term project review. 

Space is limited.  For more information and to enroll online: http://www.leicastoremiami.com/collections/workshops-classes-and-trips/products/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-workshop-finding-your-vision-fri-sat-sun-jan-17-19-2014

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:

––Friday: 7:00-8:30pm: “Together and Apart: The Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,” Alex and Rebecca’s gallery talk/walk through of the exhibition @ Leica Store Miami followed by Q&A.  This event is open to the public.

––Sat. and Sunday:  9:30-5:30 pm: Workshop

©Alex Webb, Havana, 2008, from “Violet Isle and My Dakota” at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL, thru Feb. 2

“Our landscapes contain every part of us, Webb seems to say, the broken and the whole.”—Scott Gast, Orion Magazine review of “My Dakota,” November/December 2013 issue

OTHER UPCOMING WORKSHOPS, EXHIBITIONS, AND TALKS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA:

——Saturday May 3 thru Friday May 10, FINDING YOUR VISION, NEW YORK.  For more information including how to enroll, please visit: 

http://www.webbnorriswebb.co/#mi=4&pt=0&pi=3

——Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 thru Feb. 2, 2014, “My Dakota” and “Violet Isle” at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL:

“Violet Isle”: 

http://www.smponline.org/ex_webb_violet.html#.Unzv1I3z0XQ

“My Dakota”: 

http://www.smponline.org/ex_webb_dakota.html#.UlVhFBZqN4Y

PUBLIC TALKS IN DECEMBER:  Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Leica Store Miami and Thursday, Dec. 5th at the Miami Street Photography Festival

LE MONDE: Klapisch on Webb

©Alex Webb, Havana, from “Violet Isle,” (with Rebecca Norris Webb)

“Life is accidental, nonlinear, heterogeneous, plural. However, when you write a story or make a film, you must try to find geometry and temporality to make appear linear what is not.

Narration and composition of an image are often victims of this paradox, which is so difficult to resolve. The artist seeks to represent life, which is messy and full of clutter, but to do so, the scene must be organized without completely falling into chaos. For my film Chinese Puzzle, Alex Webb was a guide to try to resolve this paradox. “——French cinematographer Cedric Klapisch in Le Monde

“La vie est par nature hétérogène, plurielle, non linéaire, accidentelle. Pourtant, quand on écrit une histoire ou compose une photo, on doit ranger, cadrer, trouver une géométrie et une temporalité pour rendre linéaire ce qui ne l’est pas.

La narration, la mise en scène et la composition d’une image sont souvent victimes de ce paradoxe, très difficile à résoudre. L’artiste cherche à représenter la vie, qui est pleine de désordre mais, pour le faire, il faut l’organiser sans la dénaturer. Pour mon film Casse-tête chinois, Alex Webb a été un guide pour tenter de résoudre ce paradoxe.”—French cinematographer Cedric Klapisch in Le Monde

To read the rest of the interview with noted French cinematographer Klapisch: http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2013/08/15/les-couleurs-du-chaos_3462085_3246.html

©Alex Webb, “Havana, 2007” from “Violet Isle” (with Rebecca Norris Webb)

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS & EXHIBITIONS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA:

——Monday, Dec. 2-Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, Miami, FINDING YOUR VISION @ MIAMI STREET PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL during ART BASEL MIAMI and the other art fairs. For more information visit the Workshop page of the festival:

http://www.miamistreetphotographyfestival.org/#!alex-webb-workshop/c8kn

——Sat. Sept. 21, Santa Fe, NM, RADIUS BOOKS ARTIST PARTY, 5-8pm, at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market. Book Sale, Sign-a-Thon, Video Shorts (including “Memory City”), and Silent Auction with Alex and Rebecca and some 50 other Radius artists including Sam Abell, Mark Klett, Stephen Dupont, David Taylor, Sharon Core, Charles Ross, Sharon Harper, Barbara Bosworth, John Gossage, Terry Evans, and  Julie Blackmon.

——Friday, Oct. 18, 2013 thru Feb. 2, 2014, “My Dakota” and “Violet Isle” at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, Florida; artist talk, book signing, and opening reception with Alex and Rebecca on Friday, Oct. 18th, 6-8pm:

http://www.smponline.org/lectures.html#.UiS0jBbB50A

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Badlands” from “My Dakota” at Southeast Museum of Photography, Oct. 18, 2013-Feb. 2, 2014

The photographer and poet grew up in South Dakota and sees the state’s landscape through the lens of grief for a brother who died. But that fact is not immediately apparent in these big, strong color photographs of sprinting deer, drooping sunflowers, and wide-open spaces. They offer an insider’s view, full of personal history, much of which remains coded. “Does loss have its own geography?” Webb has written on one of the gallery walls, and her camera circles the question obsessively, whether landing on a barbed-wire fence trailing torn plastic bags or a buffalo, glimpsed in a side-view mirror. Through Aug. 17.—from The New Yorker, Aug. 12 &19 issue

MY DAKOTA: THREE EVENTS

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Badlands,” from “My Dakota” exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, June 20-August 17, 2013

Please join me in congratulating Rebecca on her “My Dakota” exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, which opens on Thursday, June 20th with a reception from 6-8pm, and runs through August 17th.  There are two other related events — a joint slide talk at Aperture with me on Friday, June 21st,  from 7-8:30pm and an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday, June 22nd, from 5-6pm.  Please come and help us celebrate the work.––Alex Webb

LINKS:

“My Dakota” at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC: http://www.riccomaresca.com/

“My Dakota” and “Violet Isle” at the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND: http://www.ndmoa.com/

“Together & Apart: The Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,” Aperture Foundation slide talk followed by Q&A led by MCNY curator Sean Corcoran and Aperture Senior Editor Denise Wolff and book signing of “The Suffering of Light” and “My Dakota”:

http://www.aperture.org/event/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb/

“The Geography of Loss: A Conversation with Curator Laurel Reuter and Artist Rebecca Norris Webb”:

http://www.riccomaresca.com/the-geography-of-loss/

“My Dakota” featured on Elizabeth Avedon’s blog:

http://elizabethavedon.blogspot.com/2013/06/rebecca-norris-webb-my-dakota-opens-in.html

“The Suffering of Light” Q&A with Alex Webb and Barbara Davidson of the LA Times:

http://framework.latimes.com/reframed/

©Alex Webb, “Rebecca installing the handwritten wall text in her ‘My Dakota” show at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, Wed., June 19, 2013