View new videos from the weekly series of artist’s interviews with Ellen Carey and Manuel Geerinck included in the exhibition now on view at Aperture Gallery, The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography.

In the first video clip, Ellen Carey presents her works in the exhibition: the large-scale Pulls with Lifts and Drops of film pulled through the rollers of a Polaroid large-format camera and her color photogram, PushPins, where the artist used pushpins to perforate the photographic paper in the darkroom. Carey explains how abstraction in photography challenges the viewer to rethink the medium, and go beyond the narrative side to explore new arrays of light and color compositions as well as new processes using meaningful materials that reference the history of photography. She also highlights the physicality of her work often exhibited through large-scale installations.

Ellen Carey from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

In the second video clip, Belgian artist Manuel Geerinck, who started his career as a painter, speaks about his unique process combining his drawings that he then photographs in motion. Inspired by minimalism and the early days of photography, Geerinck explains how his work is at the crossroads of photography and painting as well as abstraction and figurative, always “at the edge.” He also speaks about his exploration of colors through the photographic medium.

Manuel Geerinck from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

Stay tuned next Thursday for video clips of Barbara Kasten and Carel Balth.

Click here to view The Edge of Vision limited-edition portfolio including Manuel Geerinck.

Click here to view related microsite including previously posted videos with Lyle Rexer part 1 & part 2, Bill Armstrong, Seth Lambert, Charles Lindsay, Jack Sal, Penelope Umbrico, Silvio Wolf.

Coinciding with the exhibition now on view at Aperture Gallery, The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, this is the second post of a weekly series of interviews on the Aperture blog for the duration of the show. The exhibition has now been extended to be on view through Thursday, July 16.

In the first video clip, conceptual artist Jack Sal speaks about his piece Sale/Sala (Salt/Room) while you watch him installing it. Inspired by the early days of photography, Sal uses the basic language of the medium in a minimalist and physical way, the mark of salt, steel and light on photographic paper, “making a three dimensional space out of a two dimensional idea, as if you were turning your camera inside out.” The picture is then constantly being made throughout the time of the exhibition.

Jack Sal from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

In this second video of curator Lyle Rexer, he explains how photography is not necessarily based on our memories, recording particular moments as one often assumes but “most photographs, when they are taken, look forward in time or…there are many photographs that when they are excised from their particular moment, actually have no time.” The images Rexer selected for this exhibition highlight this aspect and question our essential way of looking at other photographs and at reality in general.

Lyle Rexer – The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, p. 2 from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

Stay tuned next Thursday for video clips of Penelope Umbrico and Bill Armstrong.

View related microsite

Eirik Johnson’s monograph Sawdust Mountain offers a crisp, breathtaking look at the American West while at the same time commenting on its grim evolution. What was once a bounty of resources and natural beauty has now become over-developed and strained due to the demands of industry. The Pacific Northwest as it once was is now fading, and Johnson strives to capture both the spirit of its original lure and its shifting identity.

Both East and West-coasters have a chance to meet Eirik Johnson, who will be signing copies of his book at Crumpler Store in San Francisco, and later at Rena Bransten for the opening of his exhibition today. Aperture Gallery will host a talk and book signing with Johnson on Tuesday, May 26 in New York City.

Eirik Johnson: Book Signing
Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:00–6:00 pm

Crumpler Store
Level 3, Westfield Center
845 Market Street
San Francisco, California
(415) 896-2245

Sawdust Mountain, Eirik Johnson
Exhibition and Opening Reception

Opening reception:
Thursday, May 21, 2009, 6:30 pm

Exhibition on view:
Thursday, May 21, 2009 –Saturday, June 27, 2009

FREE

Rena Bransten
77 Geary Street
San Francisco, California
(415) 982-3292

Eirik Johnson: Artist’s Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:30 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Aperture Gallery presents The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, curated by Lyle Rexer. From the beginning, abstraction has been intrinsic to photography, and its persistent popularity reveals much about the medium. The Edge of Vision showcases the work of nineteen contemporary photographers who base their practice in some form of abstraction. Rexer defines abstraction as “a departure from or the eliding of an immediately apprehensible subject.” Within this broad definition, a host of approaches explore aspects of the photographic experience, including the chemistry of traditional photography, the mediation of lenses, the direct capture of light without a camera, temporal extensions, digital sampling of found images, radical cropping, and various deliberate destabilizations of photographic reference. Aperture will celebrate the opening of this exhibition with a reception featuring a live DJ Saturday night.

On Friday, May 15, Aperture hosts a panel moderated by Lyle Rexer, featuring artists Jack Sal, Silvio Wolf, and Penelope Umbrico at The New York Photo Festival. The panel will be followed by a book signing of Rexer’s recent Aperture publication The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography.

The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography
Panel Discussion

Friday, May 15, 2009  5:00 pm

FREE with Festival Admission

New York Photo Festival
St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water Street
Brooklyn, New York
(718) 254-8779

The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography
Exhibition and Opening Reception

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 7:00–10:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
Friday, May 15, 2009 –Thursday, July 9, 2009

Talk & Book Signing with Lyle Rexer: Tuesday, June 16, 6:30 pm      

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Click here to purchase your copy of The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Contemporary Photography.

Click here to purchase The Edge of Vision limited-edition portfolio.

In this video interview, Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink presents her new book Car Girls (Aperture, 2009) coming out this month. Hassink explains how she began this project five years ago. Photographing major car shows in seven different cities on three continents, Hassink discusses how she captured moments of these women’s performances and then how she “mapped” the project by dividing these car girls into different categories. Her project takes a subversively fun yet conceptually astute approach to issues of gender, power, and commodification. Hassink also speaks about the sexy and clever design of the book by award-winning Irma Boom and shares her memorable experience as she dresses up as a car girl in one of the auto shows. If you want to meet the artist and hear more about the project, Jacqueline Hassink will be in New York for a book signing on Tuesday, April 7 at Dashwood Books followed by a talk and book signing at Aperture Gallery on Tuesday, April 14.


Car Girls, Photographs by Jacqueline Hassink
Book Signing
Tuesday, April 7, 2009  6:00 pm

FREE

Dashwood Books
33 Bond St.
New York, New York
(212) 387-8520

Car Girls, Jacqueline Hassink
Artist’s Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, April 14, 2009  6:30 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Monday night, West-Coast based photographer Katy Grannan will be speaking at Aperture Gallery in the latest edition of an ongoing lecture series from Parsons The New School for Design. Grannan works predominantly in portraiture and strives to embody the subject’s personality, usually allowing him or her choice in wardrobe and pose. The artist’s first monograph, Model American, was published by Aperture in 2005. Her work is also included in the group exhibition Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Monday, March 30, 2009
6:30 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Click here to buy your copy of Model American through Aperture.

© Elliot Black

Aperture would like to extend its appreciation for all those who came to the opening reception of Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape from Jonathan Torgovnik. The event was a great success and raised awareness for this important world issue. Check out more photographs from the opening below.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY
(212) 505-5555

Click here to listen to photographer Jonathan Torgovnik on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show.

Click here to view a special multimedia feature from Intended Consequences.

Photographer Jonathan Torgovnik was featured on the Leonard Lopate Show, which aired today, March 3, 2009. Jonathan offers insight to his work Intended Consequences, an exhibition on view at Aperture Gallery through May 7, and book by the same title available April 7 to coincide with the fifteen-year mark of the start of the Rwandan genocide.

Listen to the interview through WYNC below.

Visit Aperture’s Gallery Page for more information on this important exhibition including the opening recpetion, Thursday, March 5, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured Aperture Gallery’s ongoing exhibit titled It’s beautiful here, isn’t it… from Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri, considered a pioneer and master of contemporary color photography. On view now through January 29, 2009, this first major exhibition of Ghirri’s work features vintage and contemporary prints that highlight how he revolutionized Italian photography in the 1970s.

Read The Wall Street Journal article here.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
(between 10th and 11th Avenue)
New York, NY
(212) 505-5555

Subway: C, E to 23rd Street and 8th Avenue or 1 to 28th Street and 7th Avenue
FREE

Copies of the accompanying book, It’s beautiful here, isn’t it… are available here through Aperture.