Tonight

Toys R Us
Cleveland, OH
2009
copyright Brian Ulrich


Sunset Park
2005
copyright Debora Mittelstaedt

Two great shows opening tonight: Brian Ulrich's Thrift and Dark Stores at Julie Saul Gallery and NYMPHOTO Presents at Sasha Wolf Gallery. I'm going to do my very best to catch them both.

Brian has been documenting the excesses and left-overs of American consumerism over the last decade, and his most recent and eerie images portray stores now dark and desolate in the economic down-turn. Read more in a piece about his work by Lyle Rexler in Photograph Magazine: Brian Ulrich.

NYMPHOTO will be exhibiting another round of work by women photographers, this time selected from an open call for entries. I am excited to finally meet German photographer, Debora Mittelstaedt, who will be exhibiting her dreamy and enigmatic photograph of a pair of red-heads - a brother and sister or a young couple in love?

Other photographers include Jennifer Boomer, Livia Corona, Katrina d'Autremont, Jen Davis, Lizzie Gorfaine, Victoria Hely-Hutchinson, Megan Maloy, Tiana Markova-Gold, Debora Mittelstaedt, Beatrix Reinhardt, Anna Skladmann, Malou van Breevoort, Corinne Vionnet, Sophia Wallace, Susan Worsham, Nina Büsing Corvallo, Rona Chang, Candace Gottschalk, Maria Passarotti and Jane Tam.

Brian Ulrich
Thrift and Dark Stores

Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22nd Street

Opening Reception: Thursday May 28th, 5:30-7pm


NYMPHOTO Presents

Sasha Wolf Gallery
10 Leonard Street

Opening Reception: Thursday May 28th, 6-8pm

Revisiting America

Untitled
from Boonville project
copyright Timothy Briner


Joanna
from Boonville project
copyright Timothy Briner

This Wednesday, an exciting and timely show opens at the Bond Street Gallery curated by the gallery's new director, Amani Olu. In light of our current political and economic climate, Revisiting America aptly draws from work by a number of talented American photographers who have examined relevant themes of consumerism, corporate development, technology, manufactured landscapes and what remains of small town America.

One of the photographers whose work is included in the show is both my friend and current teaching assistant at the ICP, Timothy Briner. I have been avidly following Tim's Boonville blog since he set off last summer to explore small towns called Boonville across the country for nearly a year. Part of what makes Tim's blog so compelling is the combination of his passion and sincerity, as well as his ability to share the internal and emotional process of making a body of work. Five prints from his Boonville project will be exhibited for the first time on Wednesday, and I am excited to see some of the fantastic results of his labor.

The opening of Revisiting America falls on the night of the final debate between McCain and Obama, so I plan to get there early to begin a long night of absorbing the complex and unsettling state of American life. I noticed in the last debate that Barack Obama quoted George Bush after 9/11 encouraging Americans to shop, a sinister statement also noted by another participating photographer, Brian Ulrich, when he talks about the motivations behind his series, Copia/Retail, which depicts zombie-like shoppers in big-box stores.

Other participating artists in the show include Jon Feinstein, Justin James Reed, Mathhew Gambler, Angie Smith and Michael Vahrenwald.

Revisiting America
Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 15th, 6-9pm

Bond Street Gallery
297 Bond Street
Brooklyn, NY