Photo LA 2014: New place, New start? by Morgane Fouesnant

23rd edition of Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition (Photo l.a.) took place last weekend in a new and vast location. L.A. Mart. -on South Broadway, Down Town Los Angeles-

If it was not as international as one would have expected, the fair was however worth visiting for its ambition to gather “Art and Photography communities under one roof”. And indeed, besides master photographers such as Ansel Adams or Edward Weston were gathered a good bite of contemporary artists and emerging talents, illustrating the varied paths photographic art followed over the past decades.

First clue was given right in front of the entrance: the installation called “Deviled Eggs: New Photographic Strategies” could not be missed:

Through a selection of “new works whose authors are reevaluating and reconditioning our perception of the ‘true’ photograph”, curator Jeff McLane was clearly suggesting that exploration of new practices, media and representation form is key to an art that has always been influenced by technological progress.

 

Among the works presented stood out one by Katie Shapiro, from her series eloquently named “an endless series of tests”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New technologies have even sometimes overtaken the original practice and some artists made the choice of exploring all possibilities given by advanced image software. Let’s give the example of Catherine Nelson, exhibited by Queensland Centre for Photography close behind. Trained as a painter, former special effects specialist, she defines herself as a visual artist. The imaginary landscapes she creates take hours of digital work to come to life.

As she puts it on her own website,

When I embraced the medium of photography, I felt that taking a picture that represented only what was within the frame of the lens wasn’t expressing my personal and inner experience of the world around me. With the eye and training of a painter and with years of experience behind me in film visual effects, I began to take my photos to another level.”

More on Catherine Nelson

 

On a different path, some artists explored the many ways Photography could be associated with other disciplines and questioned the difference between the image and the photograph as an object.

Among them, John Baldessari took advantage of the many possibilities offered by mixed media. His work was presented by several galleries, out of which a conceptual series of six beautiful drawings/photographs exhibited by Cirrus Gallery Cirrus Gallery. From 1976, it was one of the first of its kind.

 

 

On the opposite side of the exhibit, Mixografia showed pieces from the series “Crowds with Shape of Reason Missing”, illustrating Baldessari’s works on appropriated images.

 

 

Exhibited by Thomas V. Meyer gallery, Elisabeth Sunday (see below), photographer and sculptor, is another example of the many ties between photography and other form of art.

She uses a flexible mirror of her own design to create photographic images that clearly emphasize form and evoke living sculptures.

She writes:

Mirror photography is much more that photographing a reflection, it produces a visual alchemy that combines the physical world with that of the great mystery….and captures some element that remains hidden in straight photography.”

 

 

 

Of course, ‘straight’ or ‘classical’ photography was also well represented, notably with Monroe or Susan Spiritus galleries. In particular, our eyes were caught by the beautiful platinum prints by Jim Collum

 

 

 

 

To be also noted, the Winner of the Emerging Focus 2014 prize, Supranav Dash, with a piece from his series Marginal Trades.

 

And last but not least, right in front of the exit, Douglas Kirkland’s portraits exhibition reminds us that some photographers managed to reconcile art and commercial practice.

But above all it reminds us that we are in L.A.: there is always a celebrity around the corner.

Morgane Fouesnant – Los Angeles January 25th, 2014