Portland Photo Month - Week One!

Welcome to WEEK ONE of Portland Photo Month! Each week we will be highlighting some of the events and exhibits that will be happening around town.

You all know by now that you can always check the PORTLAND PHOTO MONTH WEBSITE for detailed listing information, right?

Want some background information on Portland Photo Month? Check out the interview with Photolucida's Laura Moya on Michelle Mitchell's blog.

This week is busy:

Now up at Ampersand - great show curated by now-local photographer Amy Elkins - 'Gazed Upon' - featuring the work of Jen Davis, Cara Phillips and Stacy Tyrell. Pick up a limited edition catalog of the show, too!


First Thursday in the Pearl:

Opening reception at Blue Sky - work of Nigel Dickinson ('Smokey Mountain, Cambodia') and John Faier ('Queen of Heaven') graces the walls. Nigel is the Critical Mass Blue Sky Solo Show award winner - his haunting images of rubbish scavengers will stick with you. Join visiting artist John Faier at his artist talk Saturday, April 7th at 2pm.

Opening receptions for Allen Maertz's 'Encyclopedia' series at the always-cool Chambers Gallery, and for Jennifer Zika's 'Eastern Europe - Close-Ups' at Annie Meyer Artwork Gallery.

And - the inaugural screening of Photolucida's THEN.NOW.HERE. projection on the south side of the DeSoto building - come join us in the parking lot (we will be drinking coffee or wine, not sure which yet!) at 8-ish, it is sure to be neat-o!


On Friday, head on over to the east side for:

Lith printer Susan DeWitt will have her artist talk at i witness Gallery at Northwest Center for Photography on Friday, April 6th at 6pm.

Laura Russell's 23 Sandy Gallery show 'Interplay: Photographers Focus on the Book' will explore the crossover between the art of photography and the art of the book - opening is Friday night, and the next day (7th), there is an artist talk from 4-5pm.

At Newspace Center for Photography, check out the opening of 'CRITICAL MASS 2011 - Contents: Love, Anxiety, Happiness & Everything Else'. Curated by Darius Himes, this show is a glorious example of strong work coming from contemporary emerging photographers, all on the trajectory upward! If you have personally experienced any of these three emotions in the title, you will absolutely find this exhibit telling.

Image: Nadine Boughton, 'Peril', part of the Critical Mass exhibit at Newspace.


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We Do Love Success Stories!

I'm just writing to keep in touch and let you know that Photolucida has led to a number of good things for me. I had a portfolio of African work published by aCurator in June. Lens Culture published my Friday Night dance series - it's in the current issue:

http://lensculture.com/david-pace.html

And I just learned that I was awarded the 2011 Work-in-Process Prize by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for the Friday Night series which will involve a show and a publication in Daylight Magazine. I'm still following up on several other possibilities. I made so many great connections in Portland!

- David Pace


Image: From Friday Night series

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Testing...Testing....the THEN.NOW.HERE. Project!

Two nights ago, a certain Photolucida board member and a certain Photolucida staff member put on their wool ski hats and hit the night streets of Portland. The moon was out and there was no rain to be seen.

Their mission? To test the upcoming THEN.NOW.HERE. project on various buildings around Portland. We are gearing up for Portland Photo Month!

What is the THEN.NOW.HERE. project? In a larger sense, it is an exercise about examining where we are now (Portland) and giving ourselves some historical context through photography. In a more specific sense, it is a slideshow of historic and contemporary photography submitted by the Portland public. It will be curated by our own Raymond Meeks, then projected in four locations around Portland (TBA) during the four weeks of Portland Photo Month.

Fun! Local! Free!

There are lots of good submissions rolling in, but we have decided to extend submission date through the week-end. If you are in Portland, hop to it!


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