Film still from Meshes in the Afternoon

Maya Deren’s Legacy: Women and Experimental Film, is a retrospective exhibition at the MoMA, which examines Deren as a visionary female experimental filmmaker, and the indelible influence she’s had on other women directors.

After college, Deren worked with dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham, where she developed her interest in dance and spirituality.  Deren captured several hours of footage of Haitian ceremonial dances, but the project was never completed when she unexpectedly died at the age of 44.  The edited footage, titled Divine Horsemen, was released posthumously.  It was during Deren’s time with Dunham that she met her future husband, Alexander Hammid, who introduced her to European avant-garde film.  The couple collaborated on Deren’s first and best well-known film, Meshes in the Afternoon.

This exhibition will screen Meshes in the Afernoon, and other works by Deren.  The exhibition consists of a video installation in the Theater Galleries and short-film programs in the theaters.

Maya Deren’s Legacy: Women and Experimental Film
May 15-October 18, 2010

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019

Click here for the film screening schedule.

Click here to read more about Deren in Aperture magazine #195.

Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, from the article The Artist Formerly Known as Fashion Photography

The Summer 2009 issue of Aperture, #195, is now on sale. Featuring a diverse and compelling array of images and writing from artists around the world, highlights include:

• The Difference A Painter Makes: Edward Hopper and Photography, notes by Jeffrey Fraenkel and Robert Adams on Hopper’s vision and its mark on photography.
• Daniel and Geo Fuchs: In the Halls of the Stasi, by Matthias Harder. A look at the now-quiet former headquarters of the East German secret police.
• Gay Men Play: Self-Representation, Sex, and Photography Now, by Chris Boot. Sexual identity explored through the medium of photography and on the Web.
• Maya Deren: A Life Choreographed for Camera, by Mark Alice Durant. Little-known photographs by the acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker.
• The Artist Formerly Known as Fashion Photography, by Jason Evans. Genre-bending photographers who are producing inventive fashion work.
• A Look at Look, by Mary Panzer. One of the twentieth century’s great picture magazines, brought back to light.
• Suyeon Yun: Homecoming. A selection from Yun’s project on American veterans of current and past wars.
• Don McCullin: Dark Landscapes, interview with Fred Ritchin. A photographer known for his unflinching visions of conflict and troubles discusses a long career.

And, coming soon to Exposures: video interviews with Don McCullin.

Click here to get a subscription and your own copy of this fabulous issue.