December 2011

Sara Hopkins is an Atlanta-based documentary and fine art photographer. About this series, Costuming the Archetypes, she writes:

I began this work as part of an exploration of myself. Part of humanity is exploring the unknown, the differences, and the similarities of any aspect of life. For me, masculinity and femininity are faux expression of the archetypes Man and Woman. I felt so strongly about this, that I wanted to incorporate the viewpoint into a very simple, but compelling work. I sought out Camp Drag performers because not only do they express the appearance of masculinity and femininity of the Archetypes, but they also question gender bending and what it means to be a man or woman through exaggeration and humor.

When we watch a person performing in drag or simply cross-dressing, we allow ourselves to be collapsed in a world where the ideas and traits associated with men and women become conflicted. Sometimes the illusion is so great, we erase the boundaries of what it means to be masculine and feminine. And other times, the obvious differences highlight the way each perceives the other. The appearances dictate whether or not we classify the person as feminine or masculine, though both are costumes of the Archetypes called Woman and Man.

David Vintiner is a British portrait photographer living in London. These portraits are from a personal project, Enthusiasts, which was selected for the Creative Review Photography Annual last year. He writes:

My ‘Enthusiasts’ were shot on location at a model railway exhibition in Birmingham, England. In my photography I’m drawn to the subtlety of the everyday, in this case, passion for a hobby. The neutrality of the background allows us to focus on the differences between an apparently similar group of sitters. I chose to shoot each of these portraits with available light to create an intimacy and subtlety which draws the viewer in to each character, encouraging them to observe the personal detail.

Bajo Tu Manto

These images come from Rafael Soldi’s current work in progress titled ‘Sentiment’. I admire his exposed vulnerability and can relate to the project as being a form of catharsis. I love his titles for each piece and how they fill in gaps in the story. Soldi writes:

For over three years my work has focused on my cultural transition and its implications as I come to terms with my homosexuality. I drew attention to my childhood, my family and the environments that surround me. Eventually I turned my camera towards my now defunct relationship, which became pivotal in defining my present-day identity.

Now I turn my camera towards myself, as I fight to reconstruct a life without the very thing that I thought defined me. Sentiment emerges from my longing to photograph feelings that are sui generis, manifested uniquely through my person. These images represent my struggle to surface from darkness, panic and hopelessness. Just as I once escaped my motherland to pursue a foreign one that welcomed me wholly, I now find myself escaping something foreign which has taken residence in my body and have turned the camera on it in hopes of a full exorcism.

21 Reasons Why I Love You

Embrace

I’m Here, You’re There

Panic

A Step Towards Something I Have Yet To Figure Out

Amy Elkins has been shooting some groundbreaking work exploring gender roles and masculine identity. In her latest series, ‘Elegant Violence’ she turns to men’s rugby. Elkins writes:

These works are an extension of my ongoing exploration into masculine identity. In this particular project I am fascinated with rugby, a brutal contact sport rich in tradition, dating back to the 1800’s. I’m interested in the balance between athleticism, modes of violence or aggression and varying degrees of vulnerability within a sport where brutal body contact is fundamental to the game. I am also interested in the history of the game and how it has long been described as both traditional and barbaric, elegant and violent.

Inspired by vintage studio portraits of rugby players dating from the 1870’s to 1930’s I have set up daylight studios on the field in order to make portraits of young rugby players immediately after the game. In doing so, I am aiming to capture signs of an 80 minute game that often involves intense physicality and aggressive contact without the use of pads or helmets, focusing on the subtly in their expression and body language, the dirt on their uniforms and the wounds they come away with.

Photo by Carl Kleiner

Corn Diversity (2010)

Dornith Doherty was born in Houston, TX and received a B.A. from Rice University and a MFA in Photography from Yale University. She currently resides in Southlake, TX and is a Professor of Photography at the University of North Texas. A collection of Doherty’s work entitled Stockpile is currently being exhibited at the Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas, TX from November 19th to December 23rd. About her series Archiving Eden Doherty writes:

‘Since 2008 I’ve worked in an ongoing collaboration with renowned biologists at two of the most comprehensive international seed banks in the world: the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service’s National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Colorado, and the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England. In this era of climate change and declining biodiversity, by collecting, researching seed biology, and storing seeds in secure 0º F vaults, seed banks play a vital role in ensuring the survival of genetic diversity in wild and agricultural species.

Utilizing the archives’ on-site x-ray equipment that is routinely used for viability assessments of accessioned seeds, I document and subsequently collage the seeds and tissue samples stored in these crucial collections. The amazing visual power of magnified x-ray images, which springs from the technology’s ability to record what is invisible to the human eye, illuminates my considerations not only of the complex philosophical, anthropological, and ecological issues surrounding the role of science and human agency in relation to gene banking, but also of the poetic questions about life and time on a macro and micro scale. I am struck by the power of these tiny plantlets and seeds (many are the size of a grain of sand) to generate life and to endure the timespan central to the process of seed banking, which seeks to make these sparks last for two hundred years or more.

The black and white photographs are presented as archival pigment on paper. Lenticular animations created from the collages present still-life images of an archive that appears to change color or move when viewed from different angles. This tension between stillness and change reflects my focus on the elusive goal of stopping time in relation to living materials, which at some moment, we may all like to do’.

Pine Cone (2010)

Disseminate

Husk Corn (Landrace)

Verdant Ring

Millennium Seed Bank Research Seedlings and Lochner-Stuppy Test Garden (2011)

Whip It

Sunflowers

Photo by Matthew Town

Holy Cross, female dormitory

Manchester based photographer Percy Dean was born on the banks of the river Mersey in North West England. At the age of 17 he studied photographic practice at a small local college; during this time he started making pictures around his love of skateboarding and began contributing to the national/international specialist sports magazines of the time. In 2010 he received an MA in Photojournalism from Bolton University. About this series, The Seven Sisters of Siolim, Dean writes:

Seven years ago I travelled to India. As I drove a bike through a small town called Siolim, in the North of Goa, I noticed a crowd of people surrounding a small figure. I passed by and could see that the figure was clothed in a Nun’s habit and with outstretched arms was allowing the crowd to touch and hold her hands. In the mêlée, I noticed her skin was so pale it seemed almost translucent, she watched me as I passed with frail eyes. As I drove on and away from the town the visual clutter of the situation began to piece itself together slowly in my head; the lady was an Albino nun. In hindsight, what could I have done? An awkward forced encounter resulting in some sort of ‘voyeuristic portrait’ of an Albino Nun? I presume that’s why I didn’t do anything about it at the time, but then again I was a very different person back then.

As the years passed I often thought about the fleeting moment and how things could have been different or if indeed they should have been. I’d tell friends stories of the Nun and occasionally trawl the Internet for some kind of name or record. I don’t really know what I was looking for. I wanted to feel a connection that I hadn’t make at the time, I was trying to right a regret.

In January 2011, I travelled back to try and find her. I discovered there are seven convents in Siolim; I went to them all. I’d walk through the town asking the same question again and again, I’d tell my tale to anyone who’d listen. Initially I think I was still just trying to find ‘her’, but as I made my way through the wider area and the convents, the path I was following became less definite and began to revolve about my changing feelings that resulted from all these encounters and conversations. I don’t think actually finding the person in the story really mattered anymore, maybe she never did.

Shelter for women and girls in distress

The third stage of the cross, ‘Jesus falls for the first time’

The road to Siolim

Sister Sneha’s garden

The Vivan Niwas children’s refuge

Back door of orphanage

In early 1965, LIFE photographer Bill Ray spent several weeks with The Hells Angels. Ray recalls his days and nights with Buzzard, Hambone, Big D, and other Angels (and their ‘old ladies’) at a time when the roar of Harleys and the sight of long-haired bikers was still new, alien, and for the average, law-abiding citizen, simply terrifying. This is a selection of Ray’s images originally published by LIFE.com, and more images can be seen on their website.

This was a new breed of rebel,’ Ray remembers today. ‘They, of course, didn’t have jobs. They despised everything that most Americans pursue — stability, security. They rode their bikes, hung out in bars for days at a time, fought with anyone who messed with them. They were self-contained, with their own set of rules, their own code of behavior. It was extraordinary.’

Hambone poses during the ride from Berdoo to Bakersfield. Ray spent more than a month with the Angels in the spring of ‘65, ‘mostly on weekends’, Ray remembers, ‘but the Bakersfield run was around the clock, three days and nights.’ In Bakersfield,” remembers Ray, ‘I slept on the floor of the Blackboard Cafe — the bar that the Angels basically lived in while they were there.’

Outside the Blackboard in Bakersfield, Hells Angels, hangers-on, and their old ladies conduct a seminar in advanced loafing.

Bill Ray vividly remembers the moment he truly felt accepted — or as accepted as he was ever going to be — by the Angels. Ray says that ‘he got in a bit of trouble one day, in a bar. Some bikers — guys who weren’t Angels — saw me taking pictures. They didn’t like it, but they didn’t realize that I was a sort of mascot of the real tough guys. I was about to be attacked by one of these guys when a Hells Angel standing next to me made it clear that if a hair on my head was touched, the other biker was a dead man. From that point on, I felt …. well, not safe, because I never felt safe with those guys, but as if I’d passed a test, somehow.’