Circuit City/ Ponderosa Steakhouse by Brian Ulrich

Photographer Brian Ulrich will be giving a talk this Friday, January 29th, at Hous Projects gallery in New York City.

The event will be co-hosted by Ruben Natal-San Miguel, curator of the group show VERSUS in which Ulrich’s work is featured, and Heather Huber of Hous Projects gallery.

Ulrich will discuss his photographic work Copia, a project that examines consumer culture and the state of capitalism in America. Images from Copia were published by Aperture and included in the first volume of the ongoing Midwest Photographers Publication Project. In 2009 Ulrich received a Guggenheim fellowship for the further  continuation of the work.

In addition, the talk will address the works in the show VERSUS and Ulrich’s perspective on the new generation of photographers.The event will include a book signing.

Brian Ulrich at Hous Projects gallery
Friday, January 29th, 5:30pm – 7:00pm
31 Howard St 2nd Floor
NY, NY, 10013

View Brian Ulrich’s limited edition photograph Chicago, Illinois, 2005, from the series Thrift

Check out these two gallery shows opening in New York City this week:

Erwin Olaf: Hotel, Dawn & Dusk

Dusk – Mother by Erwin Olaf
Courtesy of the Hasted Hunt Kraeutler Gallery, New York

A solo show of new work by photographer Erwin Olaf will feature two bodies of work inspired by Olaf’s travels. Dawn & Dusk is a series of dramatic black & white and color photographs contemplating race, history and form, and the simultaneously exhibited series Hotel, a group of images evoking feelings of boredom and loneliness within the sameness of hotel rooms.

Hotel, Dawn & Dusk
Erwin Olaf
January 28- March 20, 2010
Opening reception: January 28, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Hasted Hunt Kraeutler Gallery
537 West 24th Street
New York, NY, 10011

Also this Thursday, January 28th, a dual exhibition of works by photographers Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich is opening at Caption Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

The show will include Brian Ulrich‘s Dark Stores, a stark group of landscapes depicting vacant malls and department stores in various states of abandon. The series is part of a body of work showcased in Ulrich’s first monograph Copia, which was published as part of Aperture’s first volume of our ongoing series the Midwest Photographers Publication Project.

Now available from Aperture is a limited edition photograph from Brian Ulrich titled: Chicago, Illinois, 2005, from the series Thrift.

Also exhibited in the exhibition will be photographer Amy Stein’s Stranded, a series of portraits of stranded motorists. Where she describes finding subjects as a matter of chance and every encounter tense because of the unusual circumstances of the interaction and the inherent danger of the roadside environment.

View Erwin Olaf’s Monograph Erwin Olaf

View Aperture’s Midwest Photographers Publication Project

Below is an update on some of the latest goings on with three Aperture artists. On view at the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery in New York, The New Antiquity, features work from artist Tim Davis. Similar in tone to My Life in Politics, Davis surveys contemporary culture with his decisive lens, always with an element of wit and skepticism.

Photographer Brian Ulrich of MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project, is on display at Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco. His exhibition, Dark Stores responds to the 2001 call from the U.S. government to stimulate the economy through shopping. The work presents a skeptical gaze at the over-developed suburban retail landscape that is instantly recognizable, even considering his omission of logos and brand names.

One of the artists from Aperture’s The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, artist Silvio Wolf has a solo exhibition in Milan, Before Time, featuring works created specifically for Galleria Nicoletta Rusconi that explores the dynamic relationship between object and viewer. Wolf’s project was conceived as a single work consisting of seven different elements, which form a series of stations. After spending years examining images and their role in contemporary society, Wolf now shifts focus to the viewer and to the resulting interaction from this relationship. Click here to purchase a limited-edition print from Silvio Wolf.

Tim Davis: The New Antiquity
Thursday, September 10—Saturday. October 24, 2009
Greenberg Van Doren Gallery
730 Fifth Avenue at 57th street
New York

Brian Ulrich: Dark Stores
Thursday, September 10—Saturday, October 31, 2009
Robert Koch Gallery
49 Geary Street, Suite 550
San Francisco, California

Silvio Wolf: Before Time
Friday, September 18—Saturday, November 7, 2009
Galleria Nicoletta Rusconi
Corso Venezia, 22
Milan, Italy

Brian Ulrich’s second solo show in New York is now on view at Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea. The show presents works from his series Thrift (2005 – 2008) and the currently in progress Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls.

Follow Brian as he guest blogs for Aperture in a series of posts below from his road trip: Chicago to Chelsea, New York.

Click here to view Part 1.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The drive today is filling with fog and low clouds over the rolling hills. I cannot help but think of and combination of Eliot Porter, Frank Breuer and Justine Kurland.

Stopping in Buckhorn, PA for some food and the investigate a mall. This is also one I’ve been to hundreds of times as Buckhorn is about an hour and a half into PA from NY. Strangely I never noticed the old empty Ames store at the Mall. Ames was a chain of department stores that went defunct back in 2002. Oddly Ames has a ton of fans online who get super nostalgic about the brand. Some of which are kids who weren’t old enough to shop there to begin with. Brand loyalty beyond the grave! Take a look at Anne Elizabeth Moore’s book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity.

The Buckhorn Mall isn’t doing so well on the inside either. A competing Walmart opened across the highway and literally sucked any life from this ailing mall. There’s a few hangers on amidst the empty storefronts. A great part of working on this particular project is the fact that the many people who work in these troubled spaces have a real grasp on economy and any conversation seems to ‘go there’. One of them, a pizza store worker with a heavy eastern european accent couldn’t hold back and was eager to inform on the history of economy and current events. It dawned on me that the effect of North Korea recent nuclear and missile tests are having a profound effect across the country. For many (including Pizza Guy) it cements the idea of the US as a losing more of it’s control over world policy and economy. Not only is there a large amount of uncertainty with how our new President will perform in the face of world threats, but paranoia seems to be feeding itself with the many changes that this new century is bringing, most of which are reeling from the latent issues of the 20th century. Pizza Guy pointed out that the loss of intellectualism in the US may be due to the fact that the US is not attractive to immigrants from educated countries any longer and that the this country’s education system may be so flawed that we’re having problems creating educated citizens. Scary ideas as the seeds of discontent seem growing in the American heartland all to the soundtrack of Muzak.

It’s with these thoughts that I leave Pizza Guy (promising to return with $2., he wouldn’t allow me to use the ATM in the mall with it’s $3 fee) and move on. I’ve lost a considerable amount of time dissecting politics and need to get moving.

From PA entering NJ and finally over the GWB into New York through the Bronx where I used to live near Pelham. As long as I have been driving, the Cross Bronx Expressway is a mess of congestion and traffic. Curse you Robert Moses!

Finally arrive in Centerport, NY at my father’s house at 6:00pm to a warm welcome or food, my wife, friends (cheers Amy Stein, Christian Patterson, Bill Sullivan, Johnathan Swafford and George Gallo) and low tide on the north shore of Long Island.

Next up: The opening, the aftermath and dead malls and Stephen Dirado in Worcester, MA.

Brian Ulrich‘s second solo show in New York at Julie Saul Gallery will open this Thursday, May 28th in Chelsea. The show presents works from his series Thrift (2005 – 2008) and the currently in progress Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls. Much of this work is part of the larger project Copia for which Ulrich is currently working on a Guggenheim Fellowship and planning to continue across the country making pictures for a compilation of photographs to culminate in a book that examines 100 years of consumer culture in the US. The show is currently featured on the cover of Photograph Magazine.

Follow Brian as he guest blogs for Aperture in a series of posts below from his road trip: Chicago to Chelsea, New York, sent this morning at 2:42 am.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Got a late start on the long drive from Chicago to the hometown (NY) due to Car Dealership traps. Follow this up with a torrential  rainstorm or two and I’ve only made outside Toledo by 9pm. Missed the  exit for the currently-being-demolished Southwyck Mall in Toledo. Hopefully will have time to revisit/scout a Dead Mall in Akron, OH and make it into PA this eve. Averaging 38mpg Diesel.

Lunch – always surprises me how few options for food are on the road. Michael Pollan and Paul Roberts are right, we’re in trouble if we continue down Vitamin Beef.

Shout Out to John Lehr.

Drive to NY on one and a half tanks of diesel.

Shout Out to Paul Graham outside of Toledo. (I wrote my thesis paper on PG). Smoke Break, 2009

11:30 Akron, OH Rolling Acres Mall. I should’ve been here hours ago. (Disclaimer: these are all iPhone pics, mostly lit by car headlights).

Luckily I photographed inside this Mall for 2 days last summer. It was still open at the time with about 2 stores and no security whatsoever.  Still there a few pictures I’d like to make outside. There’s a certain affinity for this place as I used to shop here as a while an undergrad. While so many of these places are such a bad idea, Rolling  Acres seems to have failed not only for bad planning, but also is representative of economic class and racism. When the mall was still flourishing I recall being warned to avoid this place due to the droves of gangs. Being from NY I couldn’t understand this, a gang to me was not a bunch of kids in a mall being rowdy. I was never bothered there but clearly much of the community was. This huge mall closed not long after I was here last summer. The landlord simply stopped paying the utilities. It recently was offered up for auction and didn’t receive one bid.

I was hoping to make some 8×10 pictures here but the late timing and the fact that this one is so dim it’s downright scary. Any exposure would require at least a half an hour and some serious flashlight painting. While I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to working alone late at night once in a while it doesn’t seem the best idea to go it alone. I’ll have to try again on the way back when I have some company. Off to Pennsylvania and drive until my eyes quit.

(Ready Set Go)

When I lived in Ohio it seemed like I drove the route to NY and back millions of times. I still know what’s off pretty much every exit. So many fun and treacherous journeys in any and every type of season and weather condition. When I moved to NY briefly after Undergrad, I would drive from Manhattan to Ohio every other weekend to photograph (once made it in 5 hours!). NY had a way of feeling so claustrophobic, it was difficult to make work there. After some time (and many miles) I decided the Midwest was more inspiring and freely creative for the moment.

1:48 am and the coupon book (and my failing eyes) has led me to Clarion, PA. Not surprisingly to a hotel right next to a Dead Mall. This one is functioning but a bit of a small ghost town.  I’ll investigate further in the morning.

Since 1925 the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has annually offered Fellowships to artists, scholars, and scientists in all fields. This year, after considering the recommendations of panels and juries comprised of hundreds of distinguished artists, scholars, and scientists, the Board of Trustees has granted 180 Fellowships. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

Congratulations to Brian Ulrich the recipient of a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography. Ulrich will be using this award to continue his Copia project which addresses one of the biggest challenges at the dawn of the 21st century: our relationship to  consumption and the potential reassessing of its role and purpose in our lives.

Join Brian Ulrich at Art Chicago, where he will be signing copies of his book MP3: Midwest Photographers Publication Project at Aperture’s booth.

View event details here.

On Tuesday, September 16, Aperture hosted a panel discussion geared specifically towards young, first-time collectors on the ins and outs of collecting affordable photography. Moderated by Laurel Ptak, Aperture’s Educational Programs Manager, the discussion included Kellie McLaughlin of Aperture’s Limited-Edition Photographs Program, Amani Olu, founder and executive director of the Humble Arts Foundation, collector Ruben Natal-San Miguel of ARTmostfierce arts blog, and photographer Brian Ulrich. In case you missed it, here is another chance to listen to each panelist’s presentation or the entire discussion.

Kellie McLaughlin kicks off the talk, presenting Aperture’s longstanding limited-edition photographs program. It all began in 1968 when Paul Strand’s Mexican portfolio was reprinted for greater availability and accessibility. Kellie gives examples of the collection’s diversity from classics such as Edward Steichen and Dorothea Lange, to contemporary visionaries including Richard Misrach, Thomas Allen, Michal Chelbin and Martin Parr. She highlights the strength of Aperture’s program—particularly for young collectors—with its affordable prices and savvy image choices made by Aperture editors and curators.
Click here to download and listen to Kellie.

Ruben Natal-San Miguel talks about his passion for collecting even during these terrible weeks for Wall Street, underlining that art is what lasts. He starts by noting the importance of timing as these prints are typically limited in number and can often sell out. He also suggests asking oneself if the photograph will still resonate for them twenty years later. And most importantly, he advises the collector to “do their homework,” researching online resources—more specifically, blogs which have an incredibly strong impact on the collecting community today. He also shares a glimpse of his collection, which focuses on emerging photographers. Click here to download and listen to Ruben.

Amani Olu explains the concept behind his creation of Humble Arts Foundation in 2005, a platform for emerging artists through online and physical exhibitions, educational programs, grants and their limited-edition program. With a strong and passionate vision, this non-profit has featured hundreds of photographers, and has quickly become an important resource for collectors. In this spirit, Amani gives an exclusive preview of his collector’s guide to emerging art photography to be published in spring of 2009. He also shares his take on the differences in working for a non-profit organization and a commercial gallery. Click here to download and listen to Amani.

Artist Brian Ulrich presents his newest work photographing art fairs around the world. Regarding the art market, he also explains how photography has recently become a highly collectible item responding to the immediacy of the market compared to other mediums, and how the emerging technologies have increased the proximity between collectors and artists. Click here to download and listen to Brian.

Download the entire lecture series here.