ILLUMINATIONS
Opening January 6, 2012 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Welcome to the third annual CPC Outreach Exhibition – “Illuminations”. This year, we celebrate the work of two groups of artists and the inauguration of a new residency program.
As usual, the exhibit features the work of 5 adult students from two of CPC’s off-site “satellite” photography programs. Most of their images are digital, and a few were shot on color film. This group-critiqued and juried exhibit reveals the students’ interest in street photography, photojournalism, and more than a hint of fine art photography. CPC’s off-site program volunteers take cameras and photography instruction to emerging photographers whose circumstances limit their access to traditional photography programs. Our goal is to bolster artistic self-confidence while encouraging group participation in the preparation for and execution of an exhibit.
And this year’s exhibit also includes the participation of 19 After School Matters student apprentices. Their images were shot on BW film, then developed and printed in a traditional darkroom setting. Through group critiques, they have selected their favorite prints to exhibit, including self-portraits and brief biographies. In addition to the prints, the ASM exhibit includes interactive installations designed by the students to share their darkroom experiences with a larger audience. After School Matters Darkroom Photography is an apprentice program in the arts that allows young adults to work closely with practicing artists, learning valuable professional and creative problem-solving skills while building a democratic environment for community growth.
About The Jay Jude Residency Program
Jay Jude was an aspiring photographer in Cincinnati, who tragically passed away at the age of 16 in March 2010. His favorite photographic subjects were his friends, particularly action shots of inline skaters, flowers, and just about anything that was fortunate enough to find itself within sight of his lens. Jay himself was a champion inline skater, having competed and won in the Nationals in Los Angeles in 2008, at a level far above his age group. His aunt, the photographer Susan Aurinko and his mom’s cousin John Peterson from Louisiana made sure he had plenty of equipment to realize his dream.
When he passed away, his aunt Susan decided to establish a way for others to benefit from the equipment, and John Peterson, a cousin of Susan and Jay’s mom Pat, asked that his equipment also be donated in Jay’s name. Thus, the Jay Jude Memorial Photographic Residency was conceived. The recipient of this residency has been chosen on the basis of talent and motivation, as well as on his or her passion for photography. For the 2012 Spring Semester the Resident is Kendra Keyes.
Kendra will have use of all the cameras and equipment of the residency, for the spring semester, as well as use of the darkroom at Chicago Photography Center (which will be compensated by Susan Aurinko and her husband Gary Mostow, Jay’s aunt and uncle, and through fundraising). Although Jay shot digitally at times, his real love was using film, so the residency is essentially for film photography.
Kendra Keyes was chosen by Susan Aurinko and Jonathan Michael Johnson, who teaches at CPC. The residency is for one semester, at the end of which the resident artist will show the work that was done in the residency. Kendra’s work will be shown before her residency, during the January Outreach Program Exhibition, titled Illuminations. Work by Jay Jude will be shown as well for this first exhibition of the Residency.
WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY ORGANISATION
City Projects: New York / Chicago
Opening Reception: Friday, December 16, 2011 from 7 – 9 pm
The City Projects are an on going WPO programme, designed to connect enthusiastic and professional photographers with a global project. WPO only arranges workshops led by established professional photographers, each of whom interpret the theme with their own unique brief and style. The global themefor 2011/2012 is ‘Portraits of a City‘.
The workshops consisted of an evening introductory seminar focusing where the workshop leader delivered the brief to the participants. Day 2 was the creative day which was spent doing independent shooting. Day 3 was the post production day where each participant had a two-on-one, 90 minute editing session with a professional editor.
CPC HOLIDAY SHOW AND SELL
All work from “Holiday Show and Sell” will be on display until January 2012. Stop in and check it out!
Beirut: Then/Now - November 11, 2011 Photographs by Jamal Saidi
Jamal Saidi is a professional photographer and photojournalist whose life’s work has appeared in a wide range of international and regional newspapers and magazines, including The Independent, The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and a broad library of Reuters publications, to name but a few. His work has been featured in exhibitions around the world from Lebanon, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates to Switzerland, Spain, China, Holland, and the United Kingdom.
Since 1977, Jamal has photographed a wide variety of subjects, from conflict and current affairs to sports, fashion, culture, and lifestyle. His conflict coverage includes the Lebanese Civil War (1977-1990) and the Iraq War (1991-2004), as well as events in Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. He was injured on the field in Lebanon in 1981 due to a car explosion and again in 1982 during an Israeli attack, and was kidnapped twice in Lebanon during the civil war and once in Iraq. Although Jamal prefers to be the one behind the camera instead of in front of the lens, Al Jazeera, Al Hora, and Future Television have produced documentaries about his life’s work, and Jamal is frequently invited by major Arab news networks to speak about the challenges of conflict coverage, the rights of photographers and cameramen, and the emergence of digital photography.
Today, Jamal works as the Chief Photographer of Reuters for Lebanon and Syria and is the Honorary President of the Lebanese Press Photographers Syndicate, which he served as President for more than a decade. He currently lives in Beirut with his wife and children.
Artist Statement: “Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to document events in my country, capturing the realities of 15 years of civil war and the reinvention of one nation shared by communities of 18 different faiths. In this exhibition, to offer a window into my country and what it has gone through, I decided to contrast archive images of conflict that many people still think of when they hear ‘Beirut’ with images of Beirut as it is today – a captivating and glamorous city that reflects the resilience and bright spirit of the Lebanese people, and the ever brighter hopes that we hold for the future.”
Check back soon for a list of other previous exhibitions we’ve hosted at CPC!
