Stella Kramer
I’ve promoted several crowd funding projects here and through other social media because I believe we should support each other when the idea is strong. I always put my money where my mouth is, so here are a couple I think are important, albeit very different.
Yesterday I went to Anastasia Gallery in New York to see the wonderful Ron Haviv show before it closed. Ron has been witness to so much history, and I have known and admired him and his work for years.
After taking in his work I looked through the large portfolios in the middle of the room, all photographers I like and respect: Ed Kashi, Marcus Bleasdale, Bruce Haley, Michael “Nick” Nichols, and others. And that’s when I realized that all the portfolios were of male photographer works. Duh!
It’s been almost one year to the day that we were slammed by Hurricane Sandy, plunging most of us into darkness and uncertainty. The damage was massive and a true harbinger of the effects of climate change.
The Museum of the City of New York was inundated with thousands of images after an open callout to all photographers. The selection of 200 shows just what our city looked like during and after the storm. “Rising Waters” opens tonight at the museum, and as someone involved with the selection of photographs, I have to say this is one terrific show.
The DOCNYC festival is back, and this year there are more documentaries about and by photographers. I’ve seen the first ones, VII Uncomissioned and Men At Lunch, one a selection of shorts by members of the photo agency, and the other dissecting the iconic photo of men sitting on a steel beam high above Manhattan in 1932. VII Uncomissioned begins with “On The Line,” a piece by Ashley Gilbertson about a suicide hotline for veterans. Using still images and audio,…