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This is co-posted on Body Impolitic. I meant to put it up here sooner but some deadlines got in the way of my brain.

I'm very delighted to have a photograph in The Art of Photography The PH21 Gallery exhibition is presented in Rome, in collaboration with KromArt Gallery and Centro Sperimentale di Fotografia Adams, a renowned Italian center for photography. (Oct 9th thru 30th)

I've had worked exhibited in 3 continents and five European countries, but this is the first time I've had work shown in Italy. It's the photo of Debbie and Tracy from my book Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes. When I was working on Women En Large with my writing partner Debbie Notkin, we worked very hard to have the work seen as broadly as possible. This makes exhibition of the photo very special.



The exhibition was beautifully curated by Zsolt Bátori from the PH21 Gallery:

Although photography first emerged as a technological invention, it was also quickly conceived as an artistic practice as well. Pictorialist photographs in the nineteenth century were created to look like paintings, while advocates of straight photography in the first part of the twentieth century strived for the purely photographic means of creating photographic meanings. Street photographers devote the medium to capturing the fleeting moment, while in the last decades of the 20th century many photographers turned to staging and directing in order to utilize photography for artistic visual communication. Art photography also includes numerous genres and creative practices from portraiture, landscape and still life to abstract and conceptual photography. contemporary photographers {were asked} to show how they understand art photography in the 21st century.

When I first started as a photographer there were still rules about what was photographic "art" and what was not. There were still people who believed that color photography was not "art" and this was only 30 years ago. One of the many things I like about this exhibition is the remarkable breadth of the work. All of the photographs in the exhibition are here at the PH21 Gallery. They are well worth seeing not only for the quality but also for the diversity of the images. They give a real sense of the complexity of the medium

Follow my new Pandemic Shadow photos on Instagram.
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Deb and i posted this on Body Impolitic.



As our regular readers know, we don’t usually use this blog as a vehicle to sell our books, and we very rarely hold sales. But this was a good moment to make it easy to give a gift of beauty in hard times.

Familiar Men Gallery and Women En Large Gallery.



So: our Valentine's Day sale, from February 5 to February 28 half-price on Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes and Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes.

Enjoy!
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(cross-posted from Body Impolitic)

I was delighted when I heard that my photograph Debbie Notkin and Tracy Blackstone from Women En Large was the juror's choice in Body, an international photography exhibition at the PH1 Gallery in Budapest, curated by Zsolt Bátori. One of the reasons in that the overall quality of the exhibition is thoughtful and excellent.

From PH21:

It is always inspiring to see how photographers approach an exhibition theme from different creative angles. Photographic depictions of the human body range from the aesthetic through the documentary to mystic uncertainty, renewing, commenting on or criticizing received modes of expression…

The human body has been the central subject of various photographic genres. From documentary, event and street photography to fashion photography and the nude, photographers have always found ways of constructing images in which the specific portrayal of the human body gains significance. That significance may stem from the rich layers of meanings emerging from specific socio-cultural contexts, the visual interaction of the human body with the surrounding physical space, or the intriguing compositional possibilities offered by the body itself. Some explore movements, study expressive gestures and postures, some concentrate on the anatomical beauty, some narrate whole lives through the depiction of the human body. Others may offer stern visual criticism of our normative conceptions of the human body and the ways it is portrayed in mainstream Western media.
..
body_invitation_small1..

I read the juror's critique of my photograph this evening and it's one of the most sensitive and perceptive commentaries I've received on a photograph.

Laurie Toby Edison’s Debbie Notkin & Tracy Blackstone is the juror’s choice of this exhibition. This complex image incorporates several layers of photographic meaning. Our initial reaction to the calm composition might be to contemplate the symmetry of the image and the captivating texture of the curtain that takes up a significant portion of the photograph, providing an excellent nonfigurative background for the shapes of the two women on the couch. The lighter inner part of the two sides of the curtain lead our eyes down to the two figures emerging from the darker shades of the blanket on the couch. As we are drawn to the faces, it might even take some time to realize that the two bodies are in the nude. Indeed, it is one of the most powerful aspects of this image that nudity is portrayed in such a “natural” and subdued manner that it goes without saying – almost even without registering on our perception. It may take some extra effort to understand why the nudity of the figures is not more salient, despite also being an identifying thematic and visual feature of the photograph. The secret might lie in the bright serenity in the look of the two women. Their expressions are filled with such joy and peacefulness that the image simply washes all received – and often oppressively reinforced – social conceptions of the human body light years away. Social criticism is delivered in a serious, beautifully composed but at the same time effortlessly cheerful photograph.


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Leaving in the morning. As always, bless my cat sitter.

I have 3 photos in the art show 2 of Bernadette Bosky from Women En Large (she's one of the guests of honor), and one of Samuel R. Delany from Familiar Men. His is the photo that was in the National Queer Arts Festival exhibition that closed recently.

I'm moderating the panel "Fat, Feminism and Fandom Revisited." How have things changed since fannish feminists and fat activists first started this panel series? What did it accomplish, within fandom and outside of it? Panelists are Rachael Acks, Arthur D. Hlavaty, Eva Whitley and Bernadette Bosky. It's pretty close to the 30th anniversary of the first panel that Debbie Notkin and I did in 1984 in Los Angeles.

Conversation will be about the history both in fandom and the larger world, and also very much about now.

I think I've mentioned that I'm going to be able to go to the Sojourner Truth Museum on Tuesday in Battle Creek and see the archive of her photographs. This started with this blog on Body Impolitic "Sojourner Truth: I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance" Geri Sullivan wrote that she might be able to have me see the archives and that's what happened!!


"Sojourner Truth, according to the Willis/Krauthamer book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans And the End of Slavery, understood the power of photography, and actively distributed photographs of herself:

“Those pictures were meant to affirm her status as a sophisticated and respectable “free woman and as a woman in control of her image.” The public’s fascination with small and collectible card-mounted photographs, allowed her to advance her abolitionist cause to a huge audience and earn a living through their sale. “ I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance,” proclaimed the famous slogan for these pictures."

I'll write about seeing the archive when I get back.

Still have boxes to rope and tape. Really looking forward to seeing folks in Detroit.

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