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 SCHOLARSHIP: Finding Your Vision, Miami

©Alex Webb, “Havana, 2000” from Violet Isle (with Rebecca Norris Webb) at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona, FL, thru Feb. 2, 2014

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, “Havana, 2007” from “Violet Isle” (with Alex Webb) at the SMP 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: NOMADS MAGAZINE #4

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Blackbirds” from “My Dakota” at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, thru Saturday, Aug. 17th

“I remember coming upon this flock of some thousand blackbirds near the Missouri River.  I was mesmerized by how they flew through the stormy, unsettled Western sky as if they were one huge, dark, undulating, ravenous creature, picking clean the remains of the corn and sunflower fields in the last days of autumn.”­—RNW, from Nomads, issue 4

To read the rest of the story behind the making of the “Blackbirds” photograph above and see the complete “My Dakota” portfolio: http://issuu.com/nomads/docs/nomads_magazine_no._4

Link to “My Dakota” exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, thru Saturday Aug. 17th: 

http://www.riccomaresca.com/

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “High Winds,” from “My Dakota” at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, thru Aug. 17

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

The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/rebecca-norris-webb-ricco-maresca

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA:

——Sunday Oct. 27-Sat. Nov. 2, 2013, NYC, PHOTO PROJECT WORKSHOP 2013: One place left for this intimate workshop where participants work for a week editing and sequencing a project they are passionate about and working with a designer on a cover for a future book or catalogue. For more information:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_4&VBID=2K1HZO048XHMX&IID=2K1HRGWPCA4U&PN=1

To apply: contact Alex and Rebecca: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

——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

©Installation shot of “My Dakota” exhibition at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, thru Saturday, August 17th:

 

 

My Dakota: DLK Collection review

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Homestead Blizzard” from “My Dakota” at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, thru August 17, 2913

“…Webb’s photographs deliver a kind of broken hearted lyricism we don’t see very often; she lets her grief come through unfiltered and the landscapes are infused with her numbed sorrow. It is indeed her Dakota, a place where genuine personal emotion has seeped into the land.”–from DLK Collection review of “My Dakota” at Ricco/Maresca Gallery. To read the complete review: http://dlkcollection.blogspot.com/2013/07/rebecca-norris-webb-my-dakota-ricco.html?m=1

Time LightBox: http://lightbox.time.com/2013/07/01/the-guide-july-2013-edition/#ixzz2XnOGa8TV

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

“First Photograph I Loved,” by Rebecca on 2paragraphs:

http://2paragraphs.com/celebs/rebeccanorriswebb/

©Alex Webb, “Key West, 1988,” from “The Suffering of Light,” Aperture, 2nd ed.

NEW WORKSHOPS NOW AVAILABLE:

——Sunday Oct. 27-Sat. Nov. 2, 2013, NYC, PHOTO PROJECT WORKSHOP 2013: Two places are left for this intimate workshop. For more information:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_4&VBID=2K1HZO048XHMX&IID=2K1HRGWPCA4U&PN=1

To apply: contact Alex and Rebecca: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

——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

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

My Dakota: TIME LightBox

“My Dakota” exhibition installation at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, June 20-Aug. 17, 2013, photograph courtesy R/M Gallery

TIME LightBox presents our monthly round-up of the best books, exhibitions and ways to experience photography beyond the web—from Rebecca Norris Webb’s exhibition in New York and the Arles Festival in France to Harry Callahan’s Ten Photographs in California and Jacob Aue Sobal in Prague.—Time LightBox, July 2013

Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/2013/07/01/the-guide-july-2013-edition/#ixzz2XnOGa8TV

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

“My Dakota” installation shot of Ricco/Maresca exhibition, courtesy of the gallery.

RECENT LINKS FOR ALEX AND REBECCA: 

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

“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/

“My Dakota” exhibition @ R/M Gallery courtesy of the gallery.

NEW WORKSHOPS NOW AVAILABLE:

——Sunday Oct. 27-Sat. Nov. 2, 2013, NYC, PHOTO PROJECT WORKSHOP 2013: For more information:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_4&VBID=2K1HZO048XHMX&IID=2K1HRGWPCA4U&PN=1

To apply: contact Alex and Rebecca: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

——Monday, Dec. 2-Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, Miamia, FINDING YOUR VISION @ MIAMA 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

©Alex Webb, Installation shot of Rebecca’s “My Dakota” exhibition at R/M Gallery

“My Dakota” handmade book, edition of five, at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, June 20-August 17, photograph courtesy of the gallery.

 

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

TWO QUESTIONS: LA Times and Ricco/Maresca

©Alex Webb, Sunday LA Times, 16 June 13

Barbara Davidson, LA Times: I look at your work and I say to myself, Alex Webb must have an insane amount of patience. Your images are so meticulously layered, rich in color, possess a wonderful visual rhythm, and amazing light. Where does this obsession come from? Can you tell me about the process of creating your images?

Alex Webb: The sculptor Henry Moore, late in life, after a long and successful career, said the following:  “The secret in life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life.  And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.”  That quote resonates with my sense of the frustrations and difficulties of street photography.  It also reminds me that my father once said — a little jokingly — to Rebecca that if there were a mythical archetype for me it would be Sisyphus, interminably rolling a boulder up a hill.

To read the full Q&A online:

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

 

©

North Dakota Museum of Art Curator Laurel Reuter: What did you learn from doing the project?

Rebecca Norris Webb: Looking back at My Dakota, I now realize that I was photographing this dark time in my life in order to try to absorb it, to crystallize it, and, ultimately, to let go of it. Not only did my first grief change me, but making My Dakota changed me as well, both as a human being and as an artist.

To read the full Q&A with Laurel and Rebecca:

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

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH ALEX WEBB AND REBECCA NORRIS WEBB:

Thursday, June 20, 6-8pm: “My Dakota” opening at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., 3d Floor, NYC.  Show is up until August 17, 2013.

Friday, June 21, 7-8:30pm: “Together and Apart: The Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,” Aperture Foundation, 547 W. 27th, NYC.  This event is followed by a Q&A led by MCNY curator Sean Corcoran and Aperture editor Denise Wolff and a book signing of the first copies of the 2nd edition of Alex’s “The Suffering of Light” and Rebecca’s “My Dakota.”  This event is free and open to the public

Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm: Gallery talk/walk through of “My Dakota” with Rebecca and Alex, Ricco/Maresca Gallery.  Some of the last copies of signed”My Dakota” book will be available.

RECENT LINKS FOR ALEX AND REBECCA:

ELIZABETH AVEDON BLOG:

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

2PARAGRAPHS:

http://2paragraphs.com/2013/05/a-landscape-of-ones-own/

MY DAKOTA @ ND Museum of Art

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Badlands” from “My Dakota” at the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND, June 5-Aug. 6 and Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, June 20-Aug. 17

North Dakota Museum of Art Curator Laurel Reuter: My Dakota is as much an elegy to a time and place as it is a memorial to your brother. It is unlike any other photo book I have seen about the Dakotas.   

While objects in the forefront seem to ground each photograph, the overall composition often suggests movement stretching far into time and space. The visual parallels the passage of your brother into the beyond just as the prairie itself stretches endlessly toward the far horizon. Is this a conscious theme or am I imagining?

Rebecca Norris Webb:  I think you’ve beautifully captured the sense of tension in the frame, between the near and the far, the tangible and the ethereal, the ground one stands on and the distant horizon, all of which may also suggest the living and the dead.  In the darkest time of grief, one feels suspended between two worlds, sometimes floating, sometimes feeling tugged in two directions at once.

For months after my brother died, it felt as if his loss was carving its own territory, a kind of borderland between memory and the badlands and prairie.

LR: Your photographs layer and dissolve. They soften, bleed, and liquefy. Could this be a conscious or unconscious metaphor for grief itself?

RNW:  An intriguing observation, and one I hadn’t thought about before.   What you’re describing suggests the transformative quality of grief.  This notion is also echoed in some of the text pieces in the book, such as —  “Does the prairie long to be an inland sea again?”

Thinking about grief and transformation also reminds me of a conversation poet Marie Howe had with another poet, Stanley Kunitz, in the months following her younger brother’s death. “I feel something has me in its mouth and is chewing me,” said Howe. “Yes, and you must wait and see who you’ll be when it’s done with you,” replied Kunitz.

To read the rest of “The Geography of Loss” conversation with NDMOA curator Laurel Reuter and Rebecca: http://www.riccomaresca.com/the-geography-of-loss/

©Alex Webb, “Rebecca installing her handwritten text pieces on the walls of her ‘My Dakota” exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art.