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LAST CALL to Win a Solo Exhibition this March!
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Isa Leshko
Isa Leshko
Isa Leshko

Isa Leshko

Country: United States
Birth: 1971

Isa Leshko is a fine art photographer living in Philadelphia, PA. She has had solo exhibitions at the Corden|Potts Gallery, the Galveston Arts Center, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Houston Center for Photography, the Silver Eye Center for Photography, and the Richard Levy Gallery. Her prints are in numerous private and public collections including the Boston Public Library, the Harry Ransom Center, Haverford College, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her images have been published in print and/or online editions of The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, Photo District News and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin.

In 2012, Isa received both the Houston Center for Photography Fellowship and the Silver Eye Center for Photography Keystone Award for her Elderly Animals project. She was nominated for the 2011 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and was named a finalist for the 2011 New Orleans Photo Alliance Clarence John Laughlin Award.

Isa grew up in Carteret, NJ and received her BA from Haverford College, where she studied cognitive psychology and neurobiology. She spent the 1990s working for dot.com startups as a project manager and software engineer before she discovered her passion for photography. She has lived in Houston, TX, Salem, MA and Providence, RI.
 

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Ted Anderson
United States
I'm a photographer and designer (graphics and exhibitions) living in upstate New York, with a passion for photographing landscapes, interiors, and people. The pared down features in many of these photographs reflect my interest in natural history, and in the passage of time and the remnants of the past in the present. While the photographs were taken in places as diverse as the lakes and beaches in Maine, gardens in England, and the rural hills of central New York state, all of the images reveal my preference for the simplicity and a certain joyfulness that can exist with austerity. Is there a story behind each of these images? Always.Ted Anderson is presented by TBM Photography NetworkTBM Photography Network regularly presents the popular series: "Photographer Spotlight.” In this part of their newsletter and FaceBook page various fellow photographers are interviewed to learn more about what motivates them, what their goals are and what direction they wish to take with their art. In this segment they welcome the talents of photographer Ted Anderson. TBMPN: What best describes your particular style of photography? TA:I am drawn to austerity, simplicity and to capturing beauty in places that might seem lonely to some. I think a lot about the relationship between people and their environments, and sometimes I look for a figure or a remnant of the past in my exterior or interior photographs. I do not put elements together artificially, but try to present images as I find them. Sometimes I allow stories to arise from the moments captured with the camera. TBMPN: What equipment do you regularly use? TA:My main camera of choice is a Nikon D90 with an 18-100mm lens and a 50-200mm lens. When shooting landscapes, I often go with the wide angle settings. I use a small variety of filters that include neutral density and polarizing filters. Any processing is done on a Mac computer, and I work primarily in Photoshop’s Camera Raw and in Silver Efex. TBMPN: Who or what do you consider your major influences? TA:There are many photographers and painters whose work I admire, but right now I’d have to say that the photographs of Brett and Edward Westen, Julia Margaret Cameron and Walker Evans come to mind. I also love the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. Visually I am also inspired through music and words that include songs by Bill Callahan, novels by Marilynne Robinson, and the poems by W.S. Merwin. TBMPN: Why did you choose photography as your method of expression? TA:As a kid I loved to draw, and I’ve also composed songs on the guitar for years. Photography, however, is what brings to me the greatest level of creative satisfaction and that sense of connection to others. Just about anyone can take a photograph, but to create an image that might move another person emotionally or intellectually is a challenge that I enjoy. TBMPN: What do you wish to accomplish with your photography? TA:I wish to continue expressing myself both artistically and emotionally and to keep creating images with which people can connect. I recently heard from an old friend, someone I haven’t seen in years, who had requested a print that she’d seen online. That sort of thing does not happen every day, and when it does, it’s quite wonderful. TBMPN: What are your current projects? TA:This past year I have been photographing more portraits, and I’m in the process of setting up a few more portrait sessions. I will be having a solo exhibition in 2016 at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. This exhibition will include landscape and interior images from New York State as well as portraits. In the meantime I am always thinking about new locations to explore. TBMPN: What are your plans for future projects? TA:I’d like to see my photography business expand a bit over the next couple of years. I would like also to take on more portrait and interior photography projects. This next July (2014) I will be in England for two weeks and will have an opportunity for some informal wedding shots in the countryside. I’ll also have the chance to do some street photography in London. I can’t wait!
Tom Atwood
United States
1971
Tom Atwood is an American fine art, portrait, and celebrity photographer, best known for his books Kings in Their Castles (2005) and Kings & Queens in Their Castles (2017). The New Yorker has praised the "refreshing clarity and modesty" of his work. Born and raised in Vermont, Atwood is a graduate of Harvard University, where he studied economics. He later earned an MPhil from Cambridge University. Atwood has lived in Paris, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and currently resides in New York City. Atwood worked several years as an advertising executive before turning full-time to commercial and fine art photography. As a photographer, Tom Atwood is largely self-taught, developing many of his techniques through trial and error. According to him, various cultural influences—including theater, painting, architecture, and psychology—have informed his photographic style. Tom Atwood is particularly known for combining and balancing the genres of portraiture and architectural photography, so that neither the subject nor his or her surroundings predominate in the final image. His recent work has focused on portraits of people at home. He has shot over 100 luminaries including Hilary Swank, Julie Newmar, Buzz Aldrin, Mark Wahlberg (Marky Mark), John Waters, Don Lemon, Tommy Tune, Meredith Baxter, Greg Louganis, Barney Frank, George Takei, Todd Oldham, Edward Albee, Ross Bleckner, Michael Cunningham, Alison Bechdel, Ari Shapiro, Don Bachardy, Charles Busch, Alan Cumming and Leslie Jordan. His second book, Kings & Queens in Their Castles, was recently published by Damiani. The book won multiple awards including First Place in the International Photography Awards (book category) as well as a Lucie Award (book-other category). Atwood was included in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Triennial (Smithsonian Museum). He won first place in Portraiture in the Prix de la Photographie Paris. Atwood also won Photographer of the Year from London's Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, as well as first place in Portraiture. He has won over 40 additional awards including from the Griffin Museum of Photography, Center for Fine Art Photography, International Photography Awards, Santa Fe Center for Photography, Vienna International Photo Award (Gold Medal), CameraArts, Photo Life, PDN, The Photo Review, Communication Arts, Fence at Photoville, Graphis, Camera Club of NY, Jacob Riis Award, American Photography Annual, One Life International, American Art Awards, Photography Masters Cup, Manhattan Arts International, Hellerau Photography Award, World in Focus, Artrom Gallery Guild, PhotoServe, Reclaim Photo Award, Passepartout Prize, One Eyeland, International Photographer of the Year, International Color Awards, Moscow International Foto Awards, Kodak and American Photographic Artists (sponsored by the Getty Museum and Hammer Museum). He has also been recognized on Photo Life Magazine's list of 50 Emerging Photographers. Atwood's work has exhibited over 60 times in over 15 countries, including at the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Museum), Griffin Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, National Museum of Finland (Finland), D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Kemper Art Museum, Center for Fine Art Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts, House of Lucie, Annenberg Space for Photography, Museum of Modern Art, University of the Arts, Frank Museum, Center for Photography at Woodstock, Benaki Museum (Greece), Museum of Science and Technology (Germany), Shibuya Cultural Center (Japan), Círculo de Bellas Artes Museum (Spain), LA Center for Digital Art, Pacific Design Center, Manhattan Arts International and other institutions.
Gregory Crewdson
United States
1962
Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962) is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Crewdson was born in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. He attended John Dewey High School, graduating early. As a teenager, he was part of a punk rock group called The Speedies that hit the New York scene in selling out shows all over town. Their hit song "Let Me Take Your Photo" proved to be prophetic to what Crewdson would become later in life. In 2005, Hewlett Packard used the song in advertisements to promote its digital cameras. In the mid 1980s, Crewdson studied photography at SUNY Purchase, near Port Chester, NY. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Yale University. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence, Cooper Union, Vassar College, and Yale University where he has been on the faculty since 1993. He is now a professor at the Yale University School of Art. In 2012, he was the subject of the feature documentary film Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. Gregory Crewdson is represented by Gagosian Gallery worldwide and by White Cube Gallery in London. Crewdson's photographs usually take place in small-town America, but are dramatic and cinematic. They feature often disturbing, surreal events. His photographs are elaborately staged and lit using crews familiar with motion picture production and lighting large scenes using motion picture film equipment and techniques. He has cited the films Vertigo, The Night of the Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blue Velvet, and Safe as having influenced his style, as well as the painter Edward Hopper and photographer Diane Arbus. Crewdson’s photography became a convoluted mix between his formal photography education and his experimentation with the ethereal perspective of life and death, a transcending mix of lively pigmentation and morbid details within a traditional suburbia setting. Crewdson was unknowingly in the making of the Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art, earning him a following both from his previous educators and what would become his future agents and promoters of his work. The grotesque yet beautifully created scenes were just the beginning of Crewdson’s work, all affected with the same narrative mystery he was so inspired by in his childhood and keen eye for the surreal within the regular. Fireflies, has become a standout amongst his collections known for their heightened emotion and drama compared to its simplicity of color and spontaneity. the exploration of form within his own work was evident within his transformation of how the photo was taken rather than just focusing on the subject. Source: Wikipedia
Claude Cahun
France
1894 | † 1954
Claude Cahun (25 October 1894 - 8 December 1954), born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was a French Surrealist photographer, sculptor and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914 and is best known for their self-portraits, in which they assume a variety of personae. Cahun's work was both political and personal, and often undermined traditional concepts of static gender roles. In their autobiography, Disavowals, they explained their rejection of gender, "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me." This declaration is an important consideration when analysing Cahun's photography as they intentionally play with and subvert the viewers' understanding of gender. This quote, together with their unconventional appearance and their gender-ambiguous pseudonym, means that it is not infrequent to see the pronoun 'they' used nowadays in critical studies on Cahun. There is no evidence that they ever adopted 'they' as their preferred pronoun, but one should take into account the cultural and historical context behind this. Given that French pronouns were extremely binary and the use of gender neutral pronouns for nonbinary individuals wasn't common in the European interwar period, it isn't unreasonable to imagine Cahun would have used gender neutral pronouns had it not been for their environment. In any case, the use of the gender neutral pronouns in reference to Cahun is less of an attempt to apply contemporary norms to a historical figure, but rather a way for their gender to remain an open question in academia. During WWII, Cahun was also active as a resistance worker and propagandist. Source: Wikipedia
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