flogos

holy shit i leave for austria tomorrow for 2 months!
auf wiedersehen USA -- land of Flogos (tm)!

nyc art

new major project underway by olafur eliasson...10 story waterfalls off the river in nyc...carbon neutral, self powered and illuminated. here's a taste:

solo show for stephen... friday night

visit stepheneichhorn.com to find out more about his fantastic work, upcoming shows, and check out his blog!

congrats columbia

the current pdn annual has an article with '46 reasons to love photography now'

#34 is columbia college chicago!

artslant.com

In an exhibit at the City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower, photographers Jason Lazarus and Brian Ulrich were commissioned by art and design auctioneer Richard Wright to photograph auction lots about to go under the hammer at Wright’s auction house, wright20. For this project they were given total access to Wright’s warehouse and the various works contained there, which could be anything from oil-on-canvas painting, to designer lights and chairs.

Jason Lazarus’ photography reveals an iconoclastic personality combined sensitivity to composition. One of the first images one encounters is Jenny Holzer, Over and Over Again which is an image that results from a long film exposure to a LED sign programmed to scroll through Holzer’s signature phrases. What one immediately notices is that result of this exposure is a pleasing Rothko-like effect of a soft transition from black to orange, getting brighter near the light source, however it feels somehow like a dig on Rothko. On further reflection it is also hard ignore how Holzer’s well-meaning “truisms,” slogans like “private property created crime,” “abuse comes as no surprise,” etc. can quickly turn from revolutionary phrases to radical-chic cliché. With constant repetition these phrases become a blur, Lazarus depicts.

My favorite image from Lazarus was Looking at the Back of an Ad Reinhardt. As a rule the public never gets to see the back of a painting. Once a painting is installed in its niche it is inviolate, however the back of painting are usually quite interesting as they usually tell a story. The Ad Reinhardt painting pictured had traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, been auctioned several times and apparently switched names several times as well, finally ending up with the title Ultimate Painting, No. 19. It was also obvious that the painting had once been hung at a totally different orientation with titles crossed out, new arrows emphatically swooping around to point up and, just so there was no more confusion, the words “TOP” inscribed twice, also with arrows. For all the rhetoric and aura surrounding Reinhardt’s dark-on-dark work, apparently it has been difficult to hang the Ultimate Painting.

Brian Ulrich was an interesting comparison and companion to Lazarus because they work markedly different styles. Where Lazarus was often more literal, Ulrich tended to be more formal and classic, showing several totally abstract photographs as well as portraits--of people and things.

Ulrich has several images on exhibit of objects in the warehouse awaiting display and one image of an empty warehouse with areas taped off for upcoming occupancy. Much more of the surroundings that these pieces are housed in became apparent and their weird isolation from either a home or a museum. Lamps huddled together as seemingly truly anxious objects.

In portraiture photographs Ulrich really seemed to excel, capturing his subject in introspective moments of reverie during what seemed to be otherwise a very busy moment. In Jonathan at the Warehouse Ulrich photographs his subject in white gloves handling an abstract canvas. His expression of apprehension combined with the reverence of the white gloves exemplifies part of the legacy of the Abstract Expressionists that is still with us. Also, he probably didn't want to drop the painting.

About Art should not be missed because it features the up-and-coming in Chicago: Jason Lazarus, Brian Ulrich and certainly not last or least at all, Richard Wright who made this exhibit possible.

-Abraham Ritchie

(Photo: Jason Lazarus, Back of an Ad Reinhardt, 2007 courtsey the artist and Bucketrider Gallery)

Black is Black ain't

i am in the current show at the Renaissance Society, titled Black is, Black ain't...the show is mentioned currently in artforum:

"Black Is, Black Ain't"

THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY
The University of Chicago, 5811 South Ellis Avenue, Cobb Hall #418
April 20–June 8

Taken from Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, Invisible Man, the title of the Renaissance Society’s current exhibition, “Black Is, Black Ain’t,” illuminates both the complexity of racial discourse and its continued necessity. Despite popular culture’s saturation with this kind of discussion, the exhibition asserts, American society hasn’t really come so far. “Black Is, Black Ain’t” presents the work of twenty-six artists who grapple with definitions of “blackness,” both challenging latent stereotypes and positing new interpretations. Recent decades have seen a shift in the rhetoric of race, from biological fact to cultural construction, and the exhibition builds on this change. By including black and nonblack artists, the concept is synthesized with other factors, such as class and gender, and in doing so, the historical contributions, cultural production, and irrevocable legacy underpinning conventional views of race are revealed. Virginia Nimarkoh’s Untitled #1 (After Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988), 2001, which replicates a photorealist portrait by the German master, substitutes a young African-American woman for his daughter, inviting reconsideration of the determinability of an image and the way in which racial differentiation might shift the meaning of an icon otherwise unmodified. Paul D’Amato’s photograph of the now-demolished Cabrini Green housing projects along Chicago’s Division Street, 624 W. Division, 2007, is similarly subtle in the way it addresses gentrification: The gutted building is juxtaposed with the resurgent Chicago skyline, barely visible in the background. Other works, such as the untitled Polaroids in David Levinthal’s “Blackface” series, are more confrontational in their monumental depiction of enlarged, blatantly racist antique figurines. That the subjects of these images––objects seemingly out of sync with an era of political correctness––were likely produced within the past century reminds us of how quickly the rhetoric and cultural production of race fluctuates. Combining reinterpretation of the past with a critical view of the present, “Black Is, Black Ain’t” emphasizes the necessity of renegotiating race’s very definition by problematizing it as social fact and, ultimately, discouraging complicity in the way it is culturally produced and viewed.

— Britany Salsbury

thank you! thank you! counting my lucky stars

Driehaus Foundation Unveils Winners of 2008 Artist Awards
Driehaus Individual Artist Awards are the only unrestricted, annual awards for Chicago artists

CHICAGO – The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation is thrilled to announce this year’s winners of the Individual Artist Awards: Jason Lazarus, Anne Wilson and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle.

“This year’s entries proved that Chicago artists are always innovating. I am extremely proud of the thriving artists’ community we have in the Chicago area,” said Sunny Fischer, executive director of the Foundation. “The Foundation supports local working artists, allowing their work to continue to enrich our communities.”

The awards are given in recognition of the artists’ past works, talent, commitment to the field and promise. This year the Foundation increased the amount of the cash awards. Each artist will receive $15,000 to use as they see fit. There are no restrictions on how the artists can use their cash awards.

Here is a brief introduction to the winning artists:

∑ Jason Lazarus is the winner in the emerging artist category. Lazarus’ photography has earned him a slot in the Museum of Contemporary Art's 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work series and he has appeared in group shows in New York, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Lazarus lives and works in Chicago. He teaches photography to undergraduates at Columbia College Chicago, Robert Morris College, and Saint Xavier University. To see some of Lazarus’ work, please visit http://jasonlazarus.com/.

∑ Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist who creates sculpture, drawings, Internet projects, and DVD stop-motion animations that explore themes of time, loss, private and social rituals. She uses found materials that are familiar and rich with cultural meanings. Wilson's art is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; and Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. She is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Wilson’s work can be seen at http://www.annewilsonartist.com/.

∑ Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle investigates diverse subjects such as climate, immigration and the global impact of social, political, environmental and scientific systems. Often working with technical experts across multiple disciplines, Manglano-Ovalle produces objects that are technically complex, yet engaging. His early work focused on collaborative explorations with young people in Chicago, which led to the founding of Street-Level Youth Media, a community arts organization for youth. Manglano-Ovalle has exhibited his work at acclaimed institutions both nationally and internationally. To learn more about Manglano-Ovalle and his work, visit http://inigomanglano-ovalle.com/.

- more -
Driehaus Artist Awards
Page Two

“We’re always awed by the depth of creativity shown by the submitting artists,” said Britton Bertran, Individual Artist Awards coordinator for the Foundation. “The jury committee never has an easy choice, but I think they, like the Driehaus Foundation staff and supporters, really enjoy the process and celebrating the winners.”

The Foundation asks more than a dozen arts professionals to serve as anonymous nominators; five more are chosen as jurors who review all artists’ works. Nominators and jurors are local arts experts. The list includes:

∑ Susanne Ghez, director of the Renaissance Society;
∑ Lane Relyea, art critic and professor at Northwestern University;
∑ Lisa Dorin, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago;
∑ Carol Ehlers, independant curator; and
∑ Nick Cave, artist and past winner of the Individual Artist Awards.

Eligible artists must have lived in the Chicago metropolitan area for at least one year. They must be currently practicing their art, have spent some years as working artists, and have exceptional talent and commitment.

Past winners of the Individual Artist Awards include: Brett Bloom, Nyame O. Brown, Paola Cabal (emerging category), Nick Cave, Juan Angel Chávez, Julia Fish, Gaylen Gerber, Vanalyne Green, Gisela Insuaste (emerging category), Judy Ledgerwood, Laura Letinsky, Brennan McGaffey, Helen Mirra, Darrel Morris, Laurie Palmer, Dan Peterman, David Philpot, Karen Reimer and Richard Rezac, Sumakshi Singh (emerging category), Christine Tarkowski and Philip von Zweck (emerging category).

Editor’s Note: If you would like to arrange an interview with Fischer, Bertran or one of the winning artists for a story you’d like to develop, please call Lisa Soard at 312-251-9929.

# # #

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation benefits individuals and communities primarily by preserving and enhancing the built and natural environments through historic preservation, recognizing and encouraging quality community and landscape design, and conserving open space. The Foundation also supports the performing and visual arts and helps organizations that provide opportunities for economically disadvantaged individuals.

new Nirvana entry...thanks CraigKlein!

"Jared"
50x60" archival inkjet with handwritten text on print 2008

Jared, behind me, let me crash in his dorm room when my roommate was screwing his girlfriend in our dorm room. On this night, we couldn't score any drugs and ended up smoking resin. It was in his room he played Incesticide and Bleach for me.

profoundly simple dot com

i did a voice over for my friend! ...check it out:

http://clients.box-audio.com/Public/BM_ProSimp_JLazarus_01.mp3

it was actually fun to do, but i don't think i'm very good at it...i do appreciate the nuances of tone a bit more now...

evidence by larry sultan / mike mandel

just received 'evidence' in the mail...really wonderful. it feels seminal immediately. read more below:





from wirtzgallery website:
Sultan and Mandel created the series Evidence with documentary photographs mined from image banks of government institutions, corporations, scientific research facilities, and police departments. An NEA grant gave the artists a persuasive edge in gaining access these resources, and images were selected for their mysterious and perplexing subject matter. The series was presented in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1977, and simultaneously collected in the book Evidence, which is recognized among the most important publications in the history of photography. Removed from their original contexts and repositioned without references to their sources, these images challenged the viewer to examine the conceptual concern of identifying meaning and authorship in the creation and consideration of the art photograph.

the public teaching itself to see

Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo

By Hany Farid

MORE TO EXPLORE

• Overview Digital Forensics: How Experts Uncover Doctored Images
• Infographic Altered Lance Armstrong Photo Explained
• Photo Album Photo Tampering Throughout History [Slide Show]

This story is a supplement to the feature "Digital Forensics: How Experts Uncover Doctored Images" which was printed in the June 2008 issue of Scientific American.

Lighting
Composite images made of pieces from different photographs can display subtle differences in the lighting conditions under which each person or object was originally photographed. Such discrepancies will often go unnoticed by the naked eye.

For an image such as the one at the right, my group can estimate the direction of the light source for each person or object (arrows). Our method relies on the simple fact that the amount of light striking a surface depends on the relative orientation of the surface to the light source. A sphere, for example, is lit the most on the side facing the light and the least on the opposite side, with gradations of shading across its surface according to the angle between the surface and the direction to the light at each point.

To infer the light-source direction, you must know the local orientation of the surface. At most places on an object in an image, it is difficult to determine the orientation. The one exception is along a surface contour, where the orientation is perpendicular to the contour (red arrows right). By measuring the brightness and orientation along several points on a contour, our algorithm estimates the light-source direction.

For the image above, the light-source direction for the police does not match that for the ducks (arrows). We would have to analyze other items to be sure it was the ducks that were added.

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Eyes and Positions
Because eyes have very consistent shapes, they can be useful for assessing whether a photograph has been altered.

A person’s irises are circular in reality but will appear increasingly elliptical as the eyes turn to the side or up or down (a). One can approximate how eyes will look in a photograph by tracing rays of light running from them to a point called the camera center (b). The picture forms where the rays cross the image plane (blue). The principal point of the camera—the intersection of the image plane and the ray along which the camera is pointed—will be near the photograph’s center.

My group uses the shape of a person’s two irises in the photograph to infer how his or her eyes are oriented relative to the camera and thus where the camera’s principal point is located (c). A principal point far from the center or people having inconsistent principal points is evidence of tampering (d). The algorithm also works with other objects if their shapes are known, as with two wheels on a car.

The technique is limited, however, because the analysis relies on accurately measuring the slightly different shapes of a person’s two irises. My collaborators and I have found we can reliably estimate large camera differences, such as when a person is moved from one side of the image to the middle. It is harder to tell if the person was moved much less than that. 

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Specular Highlights
Surrounding lights reflect in eyes to form small white dots called specular highlights. The shape, color and location of these highlights tell us quite a bit about the lighting.

In 2006 a photo editor contacted me about a picture of American Idol stars that was scheduled for publication in his magazine (above). The specular highlights were quite different (insets).

The highlight position indicates where the light source is located (above left). As the direction to the light source (yellow arrow) moves from left to right, so do the specular highlights.

The highlights in the American Idol picture are so inconsistent that visual inspection is enough to infer the photograph has been doctored. Many cases, however, require a mathematical analysis. To determine light position precisely requires taking into account the shape of the eye and the relative orientation between the eye, camera and light. The orientation matters because eyes are not perfect spheres: the clear covering of the iris, or cornea, protrudes, which we model in software as a sphere whose center is offset from the center of the whites of the eye, or sclera (above right).

Our algorithm calculates the orientation of a person’s eyes from the shape of the irises in the image. With this information and the position of the specular highlights, the program estimates the direction to the light. The image of the American Idol cast (above; directions depicted by red dots on green spheres) was very likely composed from at least three photographs. 

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Send in the Clones
Cloning—the copying and pasting of a region of an image—is a very common and powerful form of manipulation.

This image is taken from a television ad used by George W. Bush’s reelection campaign late in 2004. Finding cloned regions by a brute-force computer search, pixel by pixel, of all possible duplicated regions is impractical because they could be of any shape and located anywhere in the image. The number of comparisons to be made is astronomical, and innumerable tiny regions will be identical just by chance (“false positives”). My group has developed a more efficient technique that works with small blocks of pixels, typically about a six-by-six-pixel square (inset).

For every six-by-six block of pixels in the image, the algorithm computes a quantity that characterizes the colors of the 36 pixels in the block. It then uses that quantity to order all the blocks in a sequence that has identical and very similar blocks close together. Finally, the program looks for the identical blocks and tries to “grow” larger identical regions from them block by block. By dealing in blocks, the algorithm greatly reduces the number of false positives that must be examined and discarded.

When the algorithm is applied to the image from the political ad, it detects three identical regions (red, blue and green).

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Camera Fingerprints
Digital retouching rarely leaves behind a visual trace. Because retouching can take many forms, I wanted to develop an algorithm that would detect any modification of an image. The technique my group came up with depends on a feature of how virtually all digital cameras work.

A camera’s digital sensors are laid out in a rectangular grid of pixels, but each pixel detects the intensity of light only in a band of wavelengths near one color, thanks to a color filter array (CFA) that sits on top of the digital sensor grid. The CFA used most often, the Bayer array, has red, green and blue filters arranged as shown below.

Each pixel in the raw data thus has only one color channel of the three required to specify a pixel of a standard digital image. The missing data are filled in—either by a processor in the camera itself or by software that interprets raw data from the camera—by interpolating from the nearby pixels, a procedure called demosaicing. The simplest approach is to take the average of neighboring values, but more sophisticated algorithms are also used to achieve better results. Whatever demosaicing algorithm is applied, the pixels in the final digital image will be correlated with their neighbors. If an image does not have the proper pixel correlations for the camera allegedly used to take the picture, the image has been retouched in some fashion.

My group’s algorithm looks for these periodic correlations in a digital image and can detect deviations from them. If the correlations are absent in a small region, most likely some spot changes have been made there. The correlations may be completely absent if image-wide changes were made, such as resizing or heavy JPEG compression. This technique can detect changes such as those made by Reuters to an image it released from a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in 2005 (above): the contrast of the notepad was adjusted to improve its readability.

A drawback of the technique is that it can be applied usefully only to an allegedly original digital image; a scan of a printout, for instance, would have new correlations imposed courtesy of the scanner.

press

more rummage sale buys