Chicago Photography Center Showing

It might have been nearly a month ago to the day but I’m still going to give this a go. On October 15th, I met up with my parents in Chicago, fresh from their flight from Saudi Arabia. We were all in town to catch the tail-end of a gallery show featuring two of my photos at the Chicago Photography Center.

They partnered with FilterPhoto for a photo contest and gallery show, sponsored by Canon, Adobe and others. The photos were supposed to be Bauhaus inspired…

The Bauhaus movement was brought to Chicago by Lazlo Maholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe Germany and eventually centered at the IIT. Maholy-Nagy had been at the forefront of the development of photography in the 1920’s and 30’s in Europe and continued his experimentation and teaching of the medium at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Throughout, he championed the opportunities that photography offered for a “new vision”, emphasizing new ways of seeing, surprising points of view, and unconventional techniques.

Two of my photos were selected for official entry into the competition. More on that a bit later.

We had a wonderful time exploring the city, taking advantage of the L and enjoying all the wonderful food Chicago has to offer. We didn’t, however, make it to any shows or do anything specifically Chicago. Instead we opted to wander the city, stopping whenever something truly interesting popped up. This is how I like to visit a city.

Seats on the L

On our first full day in the city we made our trip to the gallery to see my art on the walls, check out the competition and figure out how I was going to get my work shipped back to Columbia. I was hoping I would bump into Maggie who notified me about the show but that didn’t work out.

Walking up to the gallery the first thing you see from the street is one of my photos. That was as awesome as it was surprising. The letters on the window cast their shadow across my photo. Pretty cool!

One of my photos at the Chicago Photography Center

Unfortunately none of my photos won outright, though I did get Honorable Mention. Honestly though, I really do think I should have won, at least placed. I can admit when there are better photos, and there were some that I thought were better than mine. However, none that I felt were better than mine scored as high or higher than mine and the photos that did win certainly didn’t seem anything too interesting or intentional. It’s all subjective and I try my best to not get bent out of shape for not winning but… if I’m going to lose in a competition, I want to lose to a better photographer.

I probably shouldn’t rant but, it’s my blog right?

After the gallery trip we hit up the John Hancock Observatory for overpriced drinks and an unbelievable view. The overpriced drinks are totally worth it for the experience, seriously.

Chicago Skyline

With only a few more hours left in the city, we hopped back onto the L, got some delicious dinner at The Chicago Diner and headed back to our hotel. An early flight the next morning would bring me and my mother home to Columbia while my dad started his voyage back to Saudi Arabia after a short trip into Texas.

Trash Can be Beautiful

Despite not winning first place in the show, I’m still honored that my work was deemed worth enough for the walls and enjoyed the stiff competition like I got from some photographers in particular. If I had the money, there were easily six photos I would loved to have purchased. In addition, the trip provided me to visit my parents, the first time since they were in America for my graduation back in May.

Oh, and the show got me “featured” (using that term loosely) in Time Out New York which is baller. Check the link below.

I Graduated, For Real

Obligatory Family Graduation Portrait

Now, I know it seems like was in school forever.  If it didn’t seem that way to you, it certainly did to me.  Here’s how it worked out…

Graduated high school and should have had around 30 college credit hours including English, Algebra, Calculus, Physics, Government, Statistics, Foreign Language, Psychology, Computer Networking, Computer Information Systems and a few others.  Sadly, for reasons I still don’t understand, zero of those hours transferred to Mizzou.

I went to MU for two years and then left for California where I went to school for one year.  Leaving California for Columbia (again) I finished school with a bizarre collection of degrees (?) and minors (?), something we’re still trying to add up haha.  General Studies? Photography? Political Science? Women and Gender Studies? Fine Arts? A combination of some or all of the above? Probably.

What really matters is that on May 15th I walked across a stage. No seriously I did.  I even got a kiss from my Russian professor!

Walking the Stage and Getting a Kiss

After the graduation, seven years in the making, we had a blast celebrating the graduation itself as well as the closing of my first gallery show, which, by the way, sold three of the nine prints on the wall! That’s a pretty darn good debut!

I was honored to have some of my favorite people at my graduation party.

Eric, Laura and Ryan Hale

From my parents, brother, sister-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, Jenny and her boyfriend, Micheal, Corey, Josh, Akiko, Ben and Ryan Hale, Eric and Laura, Ryan, Sam, David… who else? KorrieMaggie, Emily, Justin Rodier, Nicole and more that I know I’m missing. Looks like my graduation party was one of the bigger Tweetups Columbia has ever seen haha.

Perhaps the best part of the weekend though was my family seeing my photography shown in the gallery.  They have been so supportive of my art and encourage me to continue to explore my passion.  Seeing my photos on a computer screen or even printed 11×17 is one thing.  Seeing them 20×30 in a 28×38 frame with gallery lighting? Something else entirely.

My Brother Enjoying Some Art

In the end, it was a wonderful evening. Worth the seven years? Maybe… But definitely a wonderfully memorable night.

Columbia Tribune Ovation

It’s out! The article by Aarik Danielson is on the net and available in this Sunday’s Columbia Tribune.

Buy a copy or check it out online.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with Aarik to discuss my photography, it’s inspiration and the history photography has in my family.  I hope you enjoy the article!  Let me know what you think in the comments 😀

-justin

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Columbia Tribune, Coming Soon

Yesterday I got an early look at Aarik Danielsen‘s article on me and my gallery show.  I must say, I was as honored by his words as I was in awe of his ability to describe my photography, something I have trouble with myself.

Sam was kind enough to shoot a photo of me at the gallery for the column and I actually like it which is pretty incredible.  Nothing against Sam but as I see it, the best way to ruin a photo is to put me in it!

I have a new respect for both Sam and anyone else who has to take a portrait of someone.  What a job!  My friend Breezy makes it seem so easy.

Perhaps it’s her confidence behind the camera.  Where I dance around the proposition of taking some random person’s photo, Breezy seems to just walk up and make it happen.

As soon as the article comes out, I’ll be sure to put an excerpt with a link to the full article.  Aarik’s writing style and ability to tell a story is incredible.  I can’t wait to see the finished product, as well as follow all the future stories he writes.

Oh and don’t forget, the gallery show continues on until May 15 so check it out while you can!

Perlow-Stevens Gallery
812 East Broadway
Columbia, MO 65201

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Gallery Show Reception Recap

Saturday was the reception for my very first gallery show and thanks to you guys, it was not only a huge success but also a total blast.  I wanted to thank all of you who have supported me in my photographic ventures through purchasing prints, commenting on photos here and on my photoblog, sharing my photos with your friends and even helping me select the photos for the show!

Thanks to the Perlow-Stevens Gallery for hosting my photography and Sycamore restaurant for providing all the delicious food.

Thanks to Sam who had the forethought to make it a Facebook event.  You’d think that I’d be all over that since, well, I kinda do that sort of stuff for a living haha.  Well I forgot and was pleasantly surprised to see that Sam had already setup a Facebook Event and invited dozens of people!

Sam and I hung out at the photolab for a while before dropping some stuff off at my apartment and heading to the show. We played with some old photography equipment at my place, Sam has the 50mm f/1.8 pancake lens I’ve always wanted!  Took this image with it.

It had some back focus issues with my Nikon D80 but worked pretty darn good with my Nikon D700.  Ultimately I’ll stick with my 50mm f/1.8, that is until I move up to the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G which is an incredible lens, albeit a bit pricy compared to the 50mm f1.8

A ton of people showed up at the gallery to check out the new work by Patty Oblack, Cat Tesla, Elaine Fleck, Susan Bostwick, Joel Sager, Michael Bauermeister, Derrick Breidenthal and of course, ME!

One of my photography class besties came out too, actually almost all of them!

Leah brought her camera and was kind enough to take a few pics of the reception. I’ll hope I can get them from her today and share them on the blog. Until then, here’s one of Leah checking out her shots and a couple of mine.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to support me, drink some wine and eat some delicious food. 😀  Oh and don’t forget, the show continues through May 15 so if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet, there is still time!

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Gallery Show, it Only Took Like 18 Years!

Check out that camera around my neck! It only took like eighteen more years for me to get my first gallery show.  LoL

Here are the details, see you there tonight?!

I’ll be there along with all the other cool kids 😀
Hope to see you tonight!

Date: Saturday, April 10, 2010

Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Perlow-Stevens Gallery

Street: 812 East Broadway

City/Town: Columbia, MO

View Map

Perlow-Stevens Gallery Show

I posted a few months ago about the potential for me to have my very first gallery show.  There was a HUGE outpour of support here on the blog, on Facebook, on Twitter and beyond.  So first off, thanks for all the help, the suggestions on what to submit and what to leave out.  Your thoughts were incredibly helpful to me.

Guess what, I got the show!  It’s up right now at the Perlow-Stevens Gallery and it looks great, can I say that?  Seriously though, everyone I’ve talked to has said great things about it and apparently a few people have shown interest in buying a few of the prints, which I would of course welcome!

Here is a preview of what you’ll see when you go there.  Of course everything looks different in a gallery setting.  I have always felt my images look best big and have printed each photo 20×30 inches with a four in matte mounted on archival board and put in beautiful, white Nielsen frames.  All put together they are 28×38 inch, white frames, white matte and mostly white images.  The lighting mixed with the choices on the matte and frames really helps the colors pop.

I had a great little evening last week with several friends, Chase, Sam, David, Korrie, Laura, Eric, Justin R, Sydney and a few others all joined me at Top Ten Wines for drinks to celebrate the opening of my show. Turns out it was Ping Pong Night at Top Ten, which was kind of fun to watch haha. Drunk people playing ping pong, ahem, table tennis, is always a fun venture.  It’s the reason Google added a drunk-test to Gmail for those of us who have sent unfortunate emails while under the influence… LoL  They really take it serious, brackets and all!

Perhaps the funniest part of the night were these photos captured by Sam or David, I can’t even remember, of Chase.  Make up your own story, I’ll provide the series of images…

There will be an official opening for my show, as well as a few other artists  this Saturday.  The reception is on April 10th, 6:00-9:00p.  I hear there will be free booze and food so you really have no excuse not to come!

Don’t forget you can follow the Perlow-Stevens Gallery on Twitter @PSGallery.  You can use the hashtag #PSGS and/or an @reply to them if you visit my exhibition with your thoughts.

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