Club Atletico Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires hosted an international cultural event in early December comprising more than 50 cyanotypes from workers in South and North America (and a few points beyond). The list of participants was so inclusive that chances are you know someone who exhibited.
We have an affinity for group portraits, and here’s an opportunity for you to be in an historic gathering TOMORROW outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Chicago.
Jason Lazarus says: “I want to ask impossible questions by attempting a photo like this: What does the Chicago art community look like? What kinds of communities make up this group? Who identifies as a Chicago artist? What can a group portrait tell us about artists in 2015? What might we learn from this image 10 years from now? How about 50? With these in mind, I am thrilled to invite any and all of you to stand for a group portrait, rain or shine, on the steps of the MCA at 11:30 am on Saturday, June 20!”
You’re a photographer, right (or a painter, or a musician, or a jeweler, or a ceramicist)? Drop everything and go. For more salient details, look here: http://www2.mcachicago.org/2015/an-invitation-to-the-chicago-artists-group-portrait/
The 37th annual Chicago Jazz Festival! September 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Millennium Park and in the Cultural Center!
Muhal Richard Abrams!
Dee Alexander!
Jane Bunnett!
Henry Butler!
Ryan Cohan!
Douglas Ewart!
Chico Freeman!
Chico’s uncle, George Freeman!
BHS alumnus Tom Garling!
Marquis Hill!
Bobby Hutcherson!
Newlywed Robert Irving III!
Joe Locke!
Roscoe Mitchell!
Jeff Parker!
Daughter and father, Bethany & Willie Pickens!
Henry! Threadgill!
Mark Turner!
Edward Wilkerson!
For more information (such as how to present content in a hilariously ugly format, with typos) see http://jazzinchicago.org/jazzfest/2015-chicago-jazz-fest-full-lineup-announced/
And there’s this: “Media seeking credentials to review or photograph performances at the festival must submit their request in writing on media letterhead to dcase@cityofchicago.org. Requests must include whether credential is regular press or photo, indicate the date or dates and provide phone and email contacts. Note: Some artists require approval, and some dictate how many songs may be photographed.”
You may even discover who made the last image on the poster.
We’ve demonstrated a number of times how quick and how easy it can be to make a pinhole camera; we’ve also seen examples of how specialized a camera can be designed. Now is the time to do it for World Wide Pinhole Photography Day.
http://pinholeday.org/participate/
There are endless links to resources, from Kodak to artists to enthusiast groups to youtube tutorials. Dig in! Here are a few examples from the Huge School.
The 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation grants were announced yesterday. The grants are awarded to over 175 applicants from the Arts and Humanities each year, and (currently) the average grant is a gift (in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service) of at least $43,000. These are the photographers (some of whom are FBFs).
Gary Briechle:
Miles Coolidge:
Susan Lipper:
Susan Meiselas:
Arno Rafael Minkkinen:
https://www.lensculture.com/articles/arno-rafael-minkkinen-video-art-is-risk-made-visible
Richard Renaldi:
Stuart Rome:
Richard Rothman:
Moises Saman:
William S. Sutton (hey, you look up his pictures);
Terri Weifenbach:
Three others, musicians (known to us) and a music essayist:
Darcy James Argue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q9ezXTYZUM
Etienne Charles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yASatU_DThw
George Lewis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x09K4BXcE4c
Alex Ross: http://www.therestisnoise.com
Do you go through as many notebooks (and agendas, and calendars) as we do? Field Notes, from Chicago, is an excellent source (although we have not ever used this particular brand). The current special edition covers were produced at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin (which we have yet to visit, although we’ve heard about it from workshop participants). Check out all the links. And decide whether to place an order, post-haste.
Before there were Photo Devotos and Varsity Photo hoodies, there was Tom Balsamo.
Click on this, and watch and listen: http://www.gofundme.com/thefriendsofthomas
Better late than never: Joel Meyerowitz is posting (at least) a picture a day for this calendar year, along with more text than yours truly usually provides. (For anything.) And you can hear his voice in that text. 
“I let nothing happen without considering it an opportunity to see freshly what I think I already know.
“I am responsible for everything in the frame, and if that is a given, then I must validate it by seeing everything there is to see, and knowing that opens up my mind (the mind’s eye) which makes me more alert to seeing what else there may be nearby.
“This process of cumulative engagement is what I find so thrilling about the act of making photographs. It is ongoing and ever stimulating. One never knows what is coming next.”
…are the photography collaborators Julie Lindemann and John Shimon. Check them out.
Creative Camerawork 