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

TWO EVENTS: 10X8 Gallery, Museum of Cont. Art Australia

©Alex Webb, “Sancti Spiritus, Cuba,” from “Violet Isle” exhibition at 10×8 Gallery, Sydney

We’re pleased and excited to announce that our first exhibition in Australia will be at the 10×8 Gallery in Sydney from May 16-June 1st, with a special VIP Preview on Wednesday, May 15th.  Our “Violet Isle” exhibition is part of the Reportage Festival/Vivid Sydney.  We’ll also be giving a lecture followed by a Q&A at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia on Saturday, May 26th.——Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

“Violet Isle” @ 10×8 Gallery, Sidney:

http://10x8gallery.com/

“Two Looks” lecture at Museum of Cont. Art Australia:

http://www.vividsydney.com/events/two-looks-the-personal-visions-of-magnum-photographer-alex-webb-and-photographer-rebecca-norris-webb/

David Alan Harvey, Burn Magazine: Photographer style is always the mantra for today’s essayists.  How do you compare each other stylistically? How do you see your individual styles blending into one?

Alex Webb: This is somewhat of a generality, but, loosely speaking, my work often gravitates towards visual complexity, with multiple layers, paradoxical juxtapositions, and frames within frames.  Rebecca’s work tends to gravitate towards emotional complexity, with her work often striking different –– and sometimes contradictory –– emotional notes simultaneously, which creates a kind of emotional tension and complexity in her work akin to poetry.

We do not see our work blending into one. Instead, we see the book as interweaving our two distinct bodies of work together, much like a musical duet, with its point and counterpoint.  We like to say our Cuba photographs “speak” to each other, or, as Pico Iyer says in his afterword to the book, sometimes our photographs even “rhyme.”

To read the rest of the “Violet Isle” Q&A on Burn:

http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/10/alex-webb-rebecca-norris-webb-violet-isle/

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Violet Isle,” part of Museum of Contemporary Art Australia lecture on Saturday, May 26th, Sydney

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

——”MY DAKOTA” & “VIOLET ISLE” at the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND, June 4-Aug. 2, 2013:

http://www.ndmoa.org/exhibitions-upcoming

——”MY DAKOTA”, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC, June 20th-Aug. 17, 2013; Exhibition Opening and Gallery Talk on Thursday, June 20th, Aperture lecture (with Alex Webb) followed by a Q&A led be Museum of the City of New York photography curator Sean Corcoran and Aperture Senior Editor Denise Wolff on Friday, June 21, 7-8:30pm; book signing follows; gallery talk and walk through on Saturday, June 22, 5-6pm, Ricco/Maresca Gallery

http://www.riccomaresca.com/

WORKSHOP NEWS

——WEEKEND WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NYC, Friday evening, June 21, 2013, thru Sunday afternoon, June 23, 2013, Aperture, 547 W. 27^th St., 4^th floor, NYC, DISCOUNTS FOR CURRENTLY ENROLLED PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS & APERTURE PATRONS

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, and Rebecca’s new third book, My Dakota, which will be exhibited this summer at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, in New York City (June 20-Aug. 17), and the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND (June 5-July 31).

 ONLY A FEW SPACES LEFT: http://www.aperture.org/shop/etc/photography-workshops/webb-workshop?SID=#.UWXE23jB50A

——”Finding Your Vision @ NDMOA: Weekend Workshop with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, from June 7-9pm, in Grand Forks, ND.  A few spaces still available. Tuition-free DAVID HAL NORRIS SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE for the NDMOA Weekend Workshop for currently enrolled North Dakota high school, university, and reservation students. (Includes Moorhead students and other regional schools with reciprocity with ND).  DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 15TH. For more information:

http://www.ndmoa.com/figure-drawing-class

TWO EVENTS: Paris Photo LA; Nordic Light

©Alex Webb, “Tehuantepec, Mexico, 1985,” 30×40 inches, at Paris Photo LA, Etherton Gallery, New York Backlot, Paramount Pictures Studios, April 26-8, 2013

TWO APRIL EVENTS: PARIS PHOTO LA and NORDIC LIGHT

——Alex Webb Solo Show at Paris Photo LA, Etherton Gallery, Paramount Pictures Studios, April 26-8:

http://www.parisphoto.com/losangeles/artists/alex-webb

——Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, “Violet Isle,” at Nordic Light, April 23-7, 2013: 

http://nle.no/

ANNA THANNER, Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm: What is your favourite photo of your creative partner’s work and why?

Rebecca Norris Webb: I have a top 10, but my favorite photograph of Alex’s keeps changing. Currently, it’s “Tehuantepec, Mexico, 1985,” the spinning ball.  Alex hung this print above my writing desk last Christmas.  I love how the ball on the tip of the boy’s finger suggests the spinning world, and how, on closer observation, one sees there’s also a second ball in the frame — and it’s caught in midair inside the basketball hoop!  Only Alex could have captured them both in the same frame — the poetic and the surprising, extraordinary mundane.

 Alex Webb: It’s difficult to choose my favorite photograph of Rebecca’s — there are so many.  But if pressed I will choose “Havana, 2007,” the pigeon and the egg. There’s something so lyrical, so utterly surprising about this pigeon flying off, as if it had just laid the egg.  I love the print’s muted tones and the sense of freedom that the flying bird suggests.  I can’t say much more — perhaps because what I most love about this photograph is its essential sense of mystery.

——To read the rest of the 5 Questions on Fotografiska blog: http://en.fotografiska.eu/content/view/full/34401

 

©Rebecca Norris Webb, “Violet Isle” (with Alex Webb), at Nordic Light Festival, Kristiansund N, Norway, April 23-27, 2013

WORKSHOP NEWS

——LAST MINUTE SPOT HAS OPENED FOR “FINDING YOUR VISION @ CAPTION GALLERY” WORKSHOP FROM SAT. MAY 4-FRIDAY MAY 10.  For information including how to enroll:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAXO31_3&VBID=2K1HZOC4FMBWE&IID=2K1HRG7K50_W&PN=17

——WEEKEND WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NYC, Friday evening, June 21, 2013, thru Sunday afternoon, June 23, 2013, Aperture, 547 W. 27^th St., 4^th floor, NYC, DISCOUNTS FOR CURRENTLY ENROLLED PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS & APERTURE PATRONS

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, and Rebecca’s new third book, My Dakota, which will be exhibited this summer at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, in New York City (June 20-Aug. 17), and the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND (June 5-July 31).

 ONLY A FEW SPACES LEFT: http://www.aperture.org/shop/etc/photography-workshops/webb-workshop?SID=#.UWXE23jB50A

——”Finding Your Vision @ NDMOA: Weekend Workshop with Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, from June 7-9pm, in Grand Forks, ND.  Tuition-free DAVID HAL NORRIS SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE for the NDMOA Weekend Workshop for currently enrolled North Dakota high school, university, and reservation students. (Includes Moorhead students and other regional schools with reciprocity with ND).  For more information:

http://www.ndmoa.com/figure-drawing-class

——Tuition-free workshop scholarship available for Alex and Rebecca’s week-long FINDING YOUR VISION May workshop @ the Reportage Photography Festival in Sydney.

http://reportage.com.au/2013/04/reportage-sydney-morning-herald-scholarship-for-the-alex-webb-and-rebecca-norris-webb-workshop-now-open-for-submission/

 

TWO LOOKS: Havana, 2012

Alex Webb, Playa, Havana, 2012

Usually after we complete a book like “Violet Isle,” it marks the end of a project, and we find it difficult — if not impossible — to continue photographing in the place where we made the book.  Besides completing a joint book on Cuba, we had both recently completed two complicated solo projects as well — Alex’s survey book of 30 years of color work, “The Suffering of Light,” and Rebecca’s upcoming “My Dakota,” a photographic elegy for her brother that’s been difficult for her to let go of probably because it is so personal.  After our recent trip to Havana, however, the city was just too enticing not to pick up our cameras — even though Alex’s right arm was in a sling.  

So, instead of a photographic dead end, Havana may have offered us new beginnings.  Rebecca found herself attracted to twins — from girls to women — for a series she’s started called “Sister Ship.”  Alex wandered the Cuba streets, which although they’ve changed since our last trip to Havana in 2008, they haven’t changed as much or as fast as the rest of the world.  Additionally, there’s also a small collaborative project we started working on in Havana, too, called “Together and Apart.”  Where will this all take us?  Like usual, we don’t know for sure.  What we do know is that we’re excited about returning to Cuba in midJanuary 2013 to teach with Nordic Light again and to see what happens next photographically — both for workshop participants and for ourselves.

Thanks to Cuba and to the workshop photographers for making our 12th trip to Cuba memorable.—Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb.

Rebecca Norris Webb, from the series, "Sister Ship," Playa, Havana, 2012

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS WITH ALEX AND REBEBECCA

“Teaching taught me how little I knew and it forced me to think.  I had to teach to get an education.” –––Harry Callahan, from “Harry Callahan @ 100” at the National Gallery of Art

–WEEKEND WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NY, Friday evening, March 23, thru Sat., March 25, 2012. Do you know where you’re going next with your photography –– or where it’s taking you?   An intensive weekend workshop with Alex and Rebecca. You can reserve a spot in the workshop at the Aperture Foundation website.  There is a discount for students and Aperture patrons, which you can arrange by emailing Anne Lewis at Aperture at this email: alewis@aperture.org   

––WEEKEND WORKSHOP IN MILANO @ FORMA; Friday evening, May 4, thru Sunday, May 6th, 2012.  An intensive weekend workshop @ Forma with the Webbs during Alex’s upcoming spring exhibition there, “The Suffering of Light.” Included in the workshop will be a gallery talk by Alex as well as a copy of Alex’s recent survey book of 30 years of his color photographs, “La Sofferenza della Luce,” (Contrasto).  The workshop will be taught in English with Italian translation.  For more information here’s the link.

–FINDING YOUR VISION WORKSHOP @ CAPTION GALLERY, BROOKLYN, NY.  Sunday May 20 thru Friday May 25, 2012.* A week-long photographing and editing workshop where each photographers begins to explore his or her own way of photographing and how to edit intuitively.  Will include exercises, light room tutorials, and a presentation by a noted book editor. APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN.  Early acceptance notification will start on February 29, 2012.  Check the workshop page of the webbnorriswebb website for fees, application process and further details.  Apply to this email: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

*If there is enough interest, we will explore offering a second session of the Finding Your Vision Workshop @ Caption Gallery the week before —  Sunday May 13 thru Friday May 18, 2012.

Chuck Cannon photograph of the Webbs, 2012

FEBRUARY & MARCH EVENTS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA

–– WEDNESDAY, FEB. 29, 2012, 7:30pm, Alex Webb slide talk at the Baker Center Theater, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

––FRIDAY, MARCH, 9th, 7-8:30: “Together and Apart: Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,” National Museum of Singapore, Singapore.  National Museum of Singapore is a venue sponsor of this free public event.

––MONDAY & TUESDAY, MARCH 12 -13, 2012: BLOGGING ON PRESS FOR THE “MY DAKOTA” BOOK IN SINGAPORE (with Rebecca, author, Alex, editor, and David Chickey, designer and Radius creative director).  Check the blog for updates.  If you’d like to submit a question ahead of time about being on press, please email your question to Alex and Rebecca by MARCH 1, 2012: webbnorriswebb@gmail.com

––FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 7-8:30 pm, “Together & Apart: Photographs of Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb,” Aperture Foundation, 547 W. 27th St., 4th Floor, New York, NY.  Free Event.

––LAST WEEKEND IN MARCH: Alex Webb booksigning at AIPAD. Details to come soon.

Alex Webb slide talk at Ohio University on Feb. 29, 2012

LAST CHANCE: Four Exhibitions

Alex Webb, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, 1993, from MFA, Boston, exhibition, "Violet Isle" (with Rebecca Norris Webb) and Aperture's "The Suffering of Light" exhibition

––Alex Webb, “The Suffering of Light,” @ Aperture, New York, through January 19, 2012

––Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, “Violet Isle: A Photographic Portrait of Cuba,” @ MFA, Boston, through Jan. 16, 2012

––Alex Webb, “The Suffering of Light,” @  Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, through Jan. 14, 2012

––Rebecca Norris Webb and other artists, “Winged Shadows: Life Among Birds,” NDMOA, Grand Forks, ND, through Jan. 15, 2012

NEW REVIEWS/ARTICLES

—“On Marrying a Photographer,” on Alec Soth’s blog, Little Brown Mushroom, with comments by several photographers and others, including Martin Parr, Alec Soth, Rachel Cartee Soth, Greta Pratt, Zoe Strauss, Alex Webb, and Rebecca Norris Webb.

–“The Suffering of Light” exhibition @ Aperture reviewed in the Village Voice.

–“The Suffering of Light” exhibition reviewed on DLK blog.

––”As Far As an Outsider Can Go,” in the New York Photo Review.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS WITH ALEX AND REBECCA

“Teaching taught me how little I knew and it forced me to think.  I had to teach to get an education.” –––Harry Callahan, from “Harry Callahan @ 100” at the National Gallery of Art

– PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS @ THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE, Friday evening, March 9, 2012, thru Saturday, March 11, 2012.  An intensive weekend workshop with the Webbs and Radius Books creative director and noted book designer, David Chickey, with an emphasis on the process of intuitive editing and bookmaking, following the process of how long-term projects can develop into books and exhibitions . APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP, VISIT THE MAGNUM WEBSITE.  Or, for those on Facebook, please visit the PHOTOGRAPHIC MASTERCLASS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAGPORE page. The National Museum of Singapore is a venue partner of the Photography Masterclass.

–WEEKEND WORKSHOP @ APERTURE, NY, Friday evening, March 23, thru Sat., March 25, 2012. Do you know where you’re going next with your photography –– or where it’s taking you?   An intensive weekend workshop with Alex and Rebecca. Check the Aperture  blog for workshop details, such as fee, how to make payment, etc.  Before the Aperture site is live to take workshop applications and  fees online — WHICH WILL HAPPEN EARLY FEBRUARY — you can reserve a space by emailing Anne Lewis of Aperture –– alewis@aperture.org   There is a discount for students and Aperture patrons.

––WEEKEND WORKSHOP IN MILANO @ FORMA; Friday evening, May 4, thru Sunday, May 6th, 2012.  An intensive weekend workshop @ Forma with the Webbs during Alex’s upcoming spring exhibition there, “The Suffering of Light.” Included in the workshop will be a gallery talk by Alex as well as a copy of Alex’s recent survey book of 30 years of his color photographs, “La Sofferenza della Luce,” (Contrasto).  The workshop will be taught in English with Italian translation.  For more information here’s the link.

–FINDING YOUR VISION WORKSHOP @ CAPTION GALLERY, BROOKLYN, NY.  Sunday May 20 thru Friday May 25, 2012.* A week-long photographing and editing workshop where each photographers begins to explore his or her own way of photographing and how to edit intuitively.  Will include exercises, light room tutorials, and a presentation by a noted book editor. APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN.  Early acceptance notification will start on February 29, 2012.  Check the workshop page of the webbnorriswebb website for fees, application process and further details.

*If there is enough interest, we will explore offering a second session of the Finding Your Vision Workshop @ Caption Gallery the week before —  Sunday May 13 thru Friday May 18, 2012.

Rebecca Norris Webb, Havana, 2008, from "Violet Isle" (with Alex Webb) at the MFA, Boston, and "Winged Shadows," at NDMOA, Grand Forks, N.D.

THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT: New Yorker, NYT Lens Blog

Alex Webb, "Thessaloniki, Greece, 2003," from "The Suffering of Light" in the "New Yorker," December 19, 2011

Congratulations to Alex and Aperture for the coverage of the current THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT exhibition in this week’s NEW YORKER, WALL STREET JOURNAL, as well as on THE NEW YORK TIMES LENS BLOG, SLATE, the NO RING CIRCUS blog, and an interview with NATALIA JIMENEZ on the MSNBC BLOG.  In addition, THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT  is also included as one of PDN NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2011, one of AMERICAN PHOTO’s BEST PHOTO BOOKS OF 2011, one of the GUARDIAN’S BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2011, one of PHOTO EYE’s Best Photography Books of 2011, and one of ELISABETH BIONDI’S choices for 2011 BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS on ELIZABETH AVEDON’S blog.

For those who didn’t get a chance to see the exhibition yet, consider attending Alex’s gallery talk at APERTURE on Saturday, December 17th, from 4-5 pm.–Rebecca Norris Webb

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS:

Alex Webb, “The Suffering of Light,” @ Aperture, New York, through January 19, 2012

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, “Violet Isle: A Photographic Portrait of Cuba,” @ MFA, Boston, through Jan. 16, 2012

Alex Webb, “The Suffering of Light,” at the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, through Jan. 14, 2012

Rebecca Norris Webb and other artists, “Winged Shadows: Life Among Birds,” NDMOA, Grand Forks, ND, through Jan. 15, 2012

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:

January 22-29, 2012: “The Streets of Havana,” a Nordic Light Workshop, is almost full.

Additional Webb Workshops 2012 include:

Sunday May 20 to Friday May 25, 2012,  Brooklyn, New York, “Finding Your Vision Workshop”

Friday, March 9 thru Sunday, March 11, 2012, Singapore, “Finding Your Vision” weekend workshop

Friday March 23 to Sunday March 25, 2012, possible weekend workshop @ Aperture, NY

For more information, please contact Rebecca:  rebeccanorriswebb@yahoo.com.   Ask to placed on the email blog/workshop update list for the latest workshop information.

Rebecca Norris Webb, "Havana, 2007" at MFA, Boston & NDMOA

DECEMBER EVENTS: Alex @ Aperture

Alex Webb, cover of his Aperture monograph, "The Suffering of Light"

UPCOMING EVENTS

––Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, New York, Aperture Gallery; 6-8 pm

All are invited to the opening reception of Alex Webb’s 50-print exhibition of his recent Aperture monograph of 30 years of color photographs, “The Suffering of Light.”  For more information.

 ––Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, New York, Aperture Gallery and Book Store, 4-6 pm

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb will sign copies of their books,  including “The Suffering of Light” (AW, Aperture, 2011), “Violet Isle (AW, RNW, Radius), Istanbul (AW, Aperture),  and their two out-of-print books, “Under a Grudging Sun “ (AW, Thames and Hudson, 1989) and “The Glass Between Us” (Channel, 2006). Link.

 ––Saturday, Dec. 17^th, 2011, New York, Aperture Gallery, 4-5 pm

Alex Webb will give a free public gallery talk about his current exhibition at the Aperture Gallery. Link.

RELATED LINKS/REVIEWS:

–Selection of photographs from the Aperture book,  “The Suffering of Light,” on Slate.

Review of Alex's book in L'Express

  ONGOING EVENTS:

––VIOLET ISLE @ the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Monday, January 16, 2012

A Photographic Portrait of Cuba by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb.

This exhibition explores photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb’s poetic vision of Cuba, the Caribbean island that—because of the color of its soil—is occasionally known as the “Violet Isle.” The couple became fascinated with the paradoxes of the place some twenty years ago, and made eleven trips to photograph there between 1993 and 2008. They worked individually—Alex capturing the people he encountered on the streets, in courtyards and cafes, and Rebecca recording the interesting animals that she came across—and pooled the results of their labors at the end of the endeavor. Combined, the photographers’ efforts form a rich visual essay, a sort of duet on the lyrical vibrancy and texture of the island’s culture.

Link to the BOSTON GLOBE review of the exhibition.

––Tues., November 29th, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012, Grand Forks, North Dakota

“Winged Shadows: Life Among Birds,” group show featuring work by Rebecca Norris Webb, Terry Evans, Walton Ford, and other artists.  For more information, please visit the museum’s website here.

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.

–from “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens

Rebecca Norris Webb, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, in the NDMOA show, "Winged Shadows"

 ––Dec. 1, 2011 to January 14, 2012, Toronto, Stephen Bulger Gallery; 5-9 pm

Please join us for the reception of Alex Webb’s gallery show at the Stephen Bulger Gallery, which will feature a selection of work from his recent book.  For more information.

 

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:

December 17, 2011: ONE-DAY WORKSHOP @ APERTURE

New York, Aperture Gallery , 10-5pm

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.  For more information, including how to enroll and pay for the workshop, please visit.

THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL. TO BE PLACED ON A WAITING LIST, PLEASE EMAIL REBECCA: rebeccanorriswebb@yahoo.com

––THE STREETS OF HAVANA: A Nordic Light Workshop

Sunday, January 22, to Saturday, January 29, 2012; possible second week:  Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, 2012

This 7-day workshop will be about street photography in Havana –– using the camera to explore the world of this one-of-a-kind Caribbean city in a direct, spontaneous way.  It is a workshop that will emphasize the development of a unique, personal way of seeing and the development of an intuitive way of editing your photographs. We will also discuss with participants over the week how to take their work to the next level. It’s a workshop open to amateurs and professionals alike.  For more information.

Rebecca Norris Webb, from "Communion" series, from her talk at the Brooklyn Public Library as part of the "Jump Rope Girls Project" in December