Mary Beth Meehan is a documentary photographer based in Providence, RI whose work investigates issues that define, change, and inspire communities. Her image “Ashleigh’s Bouquet” from City of Champions was selected for a Juror’s Award by guest juror Larry Fink. Meehan traveled to Tokyo last month to attend the ONWARD ‘11 Japan exhibition at the invitation of Ricoh’s photo gallery Ring Cube.

By Mary Beth Meehan

My heart jumps as I look back over my pictures from a week in Japan. I feel a rush of gratitude tinged with anxiety: Was I really there? Did I have my eyes open every minute? Will I ever be back?

The invitation to travel to Tokyo with ONWARD ’11 was an honor and cause for celebration, soon dampened by news of the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation leaks that followed. It seemed impossible to travel there to celebrate when so many were suffering so much nearby.

Mary Beth with Mr. Seidoh and Mr. Kubo. © Tsuyoshi Ito

But Tsuyoshi Ito, already in Japan photographing and trying to understand the crisis in the north, met me in Tokyo and guided me through airport and subway into a new world. He delivered me to the most generous of hosts. With Mr. Seidoh, from Pictorico, we slid through a backstreet-evening of sushi, sake, and squid. With Mr. Hashimoto, from Ricoh, we toured the ONWARD exhibition in its sleek and modern Tokyo home. Tsuyoshi’s old friend Kubo-san treated us to creamy ice coffees and promised to visit me in Providence. Without them the trip would never have happened.

Through it all, my senses were completely overwhelmed by the sounds of a language that my Western ears could not decipher, the tastes of a culture surrounded by the sea, and thousands of years of Japanese aesthetics revealed in every corner. I tried to absorb the muted silk peonies woven into an elderly woman’s kimono, the 16th-century raked-gravel garden swarmed by schoolchildren in matching yellow caps, the taste of miso soup for breakfast.

I’ve read that it’s very rare to be invited into the home of a Japanese person – that, for a foreigner, Japan is a place to be experienced from the outside. Indeed, the photographs I took in one week’s time were those of a tourist. Of course there are photographers who can make magic out of that dislocation, but not I; as a photographer I need to be invited home for dinner, find a way to be on the inside, before I can really see and make work that feels like mine.

So I rode the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, gazing out the window and longing to be invited home with the woman pedaling her bicycle through the rice fields: Please take me home with you. Please let me see your kitchen and bedroom and feel the rhythm of your life.

Though such intimacies were not to happen on this visit, the kindnesses of strangers carried me along: “Look, Mount Fuji!” said the woman on the train, as she put her soft hand on mine and pointed out the window; or Sumiko, who received me at her ryokan in Kyoto and, on hearing of my interest in ikebana, gave me a private lesson. Her husband photographed us as we clipped ferns from her garden and arranged them in bowls. Even my last cab driver, who chuckled gently in his white-lace-covered seat as I stumbled over the Japanese for “Please help me,” took my map and found the way.

As I moved through on my own, seeing very few Westerners (“They all left,” said Tsuyoshi), I was reminded of a bus trip I had taken years before through the Irish countryside. On the bus was an African man, as out of place in Ireland as I was in Japan. He asked for the bus driver’s help, but had confused the name of the town he was seeking with one long since passed. The driver and some teenagers had a laugh at his expense, and hustled him off the bus in the middle of nowhere.

How different was my experience in Japan. How different to feel privileged, safe, and welcome. How lucky I was.

Unless otherwise noted, all images © 2011 Mary Beth Meehan.

Mary Beth was selected by Larry Fink to received the ONWARD ‘11 Juror Award for her image “Ashleigh’s Bouquet” from City of Champions. This current project is a portrait of her hometown Brockton, MA, and continues her study of issues that define, change, and inspire communities. Mary Beth will lead a two-day workshop, The Personal Project, at Project Basho on July 23 & 24. Hear Mary Beth talk about her work in community photojournalism in this interview with Tsuyoshi.

View more of Mary Beth’s images at: www.marybethmeehan.com
Readers from Japan can also check out an interview with Mary Beth in Tokyo Art Beat (in Japanese).

Mary Beth Meehan: My name is Mary Beth Meehan. I’m a photographer and I’m very proud to have a photograph in the ONWARD ‘11 show that was shown at Project Basho in Philadelphia and is now here at Ring Cube Gallery in Tokyo.

Tsuyoshi Ito, Mary Beth Meehan, and Mr. Hashimoto at Ring Cube

Tsuyoshi Ito: Mary Beth, what do you think about the show at Ring Cube?

MM: I thought the show looked beautiful. It’s a beautiful, very modern gallery. It was wonderful to see it in this completely different context. Ring Cube gallery is like Times Square times ten, and so it’s wonderful to go in that environment and see our beautiful show that started at Project Basho in Philadelphia.

TI: It’s almost difficult to fathom that the things that we saw in our gallery for a long time are actually in the middle of Tokyo. That’s just kind of interesting.

MM: Totally, I mean, I can’t believe that the girl that I photographed, she’s so much a part of that city, which is so local and community based to me, that she’s here in Tokyo, and 300 Japanese people a day are looking at her and thinking about her. That really blows my mind.

TI: Yeah, that is really wild. Tell me a little bit about your picture that is in the show, and a little bit about the project that you are working on.

MM: The picture that’s in the show is from a body of work called City of Champions, which is based in my hometown, Brockton, Massachusetts. Brockton is a postindustrial city. It was a shoe manufacturing city and a thriving place that has had the same decline as many postindustrial American cities. So, it’s very personal in that it’s where I’m from and where four generations of my family are from, but it’s also reflective of what’s happening in so many American cities. There’s a lot of emotion on the part of people who have seen their city decline, and then a lot of resentment to newcomers, a lot of misunderstanding about why it is the way it is and placing blame on the newcomers for what’s happened to the city in general. So, it’s a very complicated emotional topic.

That little bit of tension to me kind of sums up the place, and so that photo feels very much like that place. There’s something a little bit unsettling and also beautiful on a depressed landscape.

TI: How long have you been working on this project?

MM: I started photographing when my second son was born in the end of 2005.

TI: So you have this body of work, and then ONWARD is sort of one outlet, but you are also thinking of other venues or other ways to work that out. Tell me a little bit about that.

MM: I’ve had some exhibitions as the work has been in progress, but right now I am working with the city and with the college that’s near there to create a public installation of the pictures as large format banners in the downtown. So we really are interested in the juxtaposition, not seeing the photographs in a kind of removed gallery, but bringing people into the heart of this declined place. And also to consider the photographs as narratives, almost as narrative portraits of the people who live there. There is this tension between the old timers who feel like it’s gone, and the newcomers who feel like they have an investment in the place. We’re hoping to have 12 X 8 ft banners on buildings in the downtown area. I think it could be really exciting.

TI: In terms of seeking ways to show your work, I think it’s a little bit out of convention in a way – it’s not like a typical gallery setting, it’s more a public art project. Tell me what you think about that process: presenting the work in an unconventionally defined way in terms of how photography is usually done.

Mary Beth with Mr. Seidoh (left) and Mr. Eguchi of Pictorico

MM: I like the idea of having that exhibition available as part of this whole project – I don’t see it as one thing or the other thing. The public art installation part of it is unconventional, but I like the way that it engages an audience that might not go to a gallery. This whole corridor of people who take public transportation, who live and work, who might not end up in a traditional gallery or in an art context can now interact with that work and be part of the conversation.

TI: You have a background in photojournalism working for a newspaper, and I think for the kind of work you have the typical gallery setting might not reach enough people and get them involved, because the nature of the work is more socially conscious.

MM: My goal is for the work to exist on many levels, for it to be as strong as it can be visually and aesthetically, and for it to be able to stand on its own on that level. I don’t want it to be strictly documentary in the sense that it’s not taking into account those issues. What I’ve realized is that it’s touching on issues of who the city wants to be. It’s touching on real essential identity issues about the place: who does it want to reflect itself to be?

TI: You’ve been in Tokyo having never been to Japan, meeting many people and going around different parts of the city. How’s that experience going for you?

MM: In speaking with Mr. Seidoh and Mr. Hashimoto at Pictorico and Ring Cube, their interest in Project Basho and in our work has made me see that these world wide connections of photographers are really quite small. Mr. Hashimoto sees the ONWARD show as a way of expanding some sense of photography here in Japan. It’s really exciting to me to be able to make these connections. You know that there’s relevance now on another level, which is how can photographers interact with each other, how can places like Ricoh or Project Basho create a venue for photographers to have an experience like this.

TI: So how do you see Japanese culture? You’ve been observing people’s mannerisms and sense of aesthetics, so what do you see in Japanese culture that you’ve been experiencing in the past couple days?

MM: It’s really wonderful, I’ve really been sort of studying the way that people put textures and color together. And ancient Japanese history is right there on the surface alongside the really chrome and glitzy modern. We go to this chrome and glitzy modern building to meet the gentleman from Pictorico, but then we go and eat tempura at this place where the women are dressed in muted kimono and it’s just visually mind blowing.

TI: So what are you hoping to do for the rest of your stay?

MM: Well, I feel very torn because I know this disaster is happening north of here, and so the journalist and documentarian in me feels like I want to go up there and see what’s happening. Then the tourist in me who’s always wanted to go to Japan wants to go to Kyoto and see the gardens and the landscape there, and really experience that old fashioned historic Japan. So, I feel very uneasy about the whole thing. I feel ambivalent about the fact that we have had such a good time here in Tokyo, but knowing that so many people are suffering so near by.

TI: Will you come back to Japan again?

MM: I would love to come back to Japan again! I would love to be involved in photography here some way.

Her current project Imagined Family Heirlooms, presents a mixed assembly of found letters, pictures, and other mementos alongside original photographs, photograms, and collages as well as objects gathered from her own relatives. Presented together, these arbitrarily connected objects coalesce into a potential, but imaginary heirloom collection, which suggests a new history and draws attention to the rootless nature of many American identities as well as a sense of shared identity connecting strangers separated by time and space.

During her talk, Keliy will present new original work as well as examples of historic plates from the 19th century. Keliy’s visit to Philadelphia and Project Basho coincides with a tintype photobooth event she will be doing at The Print Center on Saturday, June 25th. For more information, please visit their website.

Please join us for this very special lecture:

When: Friday, June 24 at 7pm
Where: Project Basho Gallery
1305 Germantown Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Admission:
$10 – General Public
$5 – Students and Friends of Project Basho
Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis

Pierfrancesco Celada at ONWARD '11 Japan

ONWARD ‘11 Japan closed this past Sunday at Ricoh’s photo gallery RING CUBE in Tokyo. Tsuyoshi Ito, Project Basho’s Founder and Program Director, flew to Tokyo to attend the exhibition and had the chance to catch up with some of the photographers that were selected for the show including Pierfrancesco Celada.

Pierfrancesco is the recipient of the ONWARD ‘11 West Collection Purchase Award for his photograph, “The Phone, Tokyo.” Recently, he won the Ideastap/Magnum Photo award for photojournalism. He is currently working on an ongoing series of photographs involving the notion of isolation and solitude in modern metropolitan cities. To hear more about his projects, listen to his interview with Tsuyoshi Ito while they caught up in Tokyo. You can also view more of Pierfrancesco’s images on his website: www.pierfrancescocelada.com/

Check back soon for even more interviews with ONWARD ‘11 selected photographers from Japan!

Tsuyoshi Ito: So, Pierfrancesco we are in Ginza, right underneath the Ricoh gallery. What did you think about the show?

Pierfrancesco Celada: It was really good, I’ve previously seen the space and have seen also the ONWARD exhibition. It’s quite fascinating that it comes from the other side of the world. Great work.

TI: So what is the ONWARD competition to you as a young photographer who is trying to establish their name? What does it give you?

PC: What I found was most important for me was the level of exposure that I received after ONWARD. I often check the statistics for my website and I’ve seen a much higher number of people coming to my website through ONWARD, so this is great. Its basically what is necessary to maximize exposure. Its the good part of the new technologies, nowadays everything is available. So you need these kinds of platforms in order to be seen by as many people as possible.

TI: How long have you been working on the Japan section of your Project?

PC: The first picture of the Japanese project was in 2009. So I did two trips in 2010 and this is the first trip in 2011. Hopefully I’m nearly there.

TI: And the picture that was in ONWARD that was taken in Tokyo?

PC: That was in maybe May 2010.

TI: Tell us about the idea behind that picture?

The Phone, Tokyo

PC: There were two businessmen talking on the phone and it looks like they are perhaps communicating with each other, but obviously they are not. Basically there are different layers of division between these two men. In society nowadays, there are certain imaginary infrastructures between individuals. So you have your mobile, which is a way of communicating but it also separates you from other people around you. It is a kind of protection and if you don’t want to communicate you can even mimic using your mobile; not in order to communicate but to create a sort of invisible cloak around you.

TI: And the picture was divided by a glass structure.

PC: Yes, the glass and handrails-a series of elements that increases the distance between these two people. They are also on two separate levels which symbolizes the maximization of distance between two individuals. Also, since everything is glass, though they look close there is an infrastructure in between that makes them apart.

TI: So in a way technology, like a mobile phone or even modern architecture, is a way of dividing human connection.

PC: I visited Japan for the first time a couple of years ago and was really fascinated by the distance I was experiencing and perceiving between me and other people.

At the beginning, I thought it was because I was a foreigner and was not able to speak the language. I thought that was the reason why I was feeling alone myself. Then I start believing that maybe other people living in this gigantic city were also feeling a similar sense of isolation. So I decided to come back and spend more time trying to visualize this idea of isolation in a place where there is a really high concentration of people living together.

TI: You said isolation. Is it like a physical distance or more metaphorical?

Nagoya Eki

PC: I would say more metaphorical. I was spending my day walking around, spending time on the metro system and watching people of service. So I start asking myself, Where are you going? What’s your name? What’s your plan? What have you been doing? What’s your origin?

Really simple questions. You will see people in their own mind or spending time with their mobile, rather than conversing with you. So I would say it’s a metaphoric form of isolation rather than physical. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just isolation in the sense of being alone. Its not negative because you might have a family at home waiting for you, but in your daily routine, when you are outside, you are alone.

The question now is to see whether this kind of attitude will also appear in other big cities worldwide. I started doing a similar project in London and the answer is no, perhaps, thank god. It seems London is more open towards strangers. It is easier to have a conversation and to interact.

But, in the 70s japan was labeled as country suffering from “western society disease”, so that is why I wanted to use it as a comparison point. Starting with the Japan and trying to see in other cultures if there is something similar or perhaps something completely opposite.

TI: You also are trying to experiment with self publishing, tell me about this book project that you did

PC: I just published a book called INSIDEOUT: the Bigg Market which is self -published with blurb. It’s a print-on-demand company so if someone want to buy the book they can go online and purchase it. Its a very good way of investing little and gaining visibility. It is also available as a preview online if somebody want to have a look so its another way of showing your work on the web. Everything goes all around the world at the moment so its better to be there than not to be there.

TI: That’s great. Thank you.

Project Basho’s Program Director Tsuyoshi Ito will be flying to Japan this weekend to attend the show and we are looking forward to seeing how it looks installed in its new temporary home at Ring Cube. Located in the famous Ginza 4-chome intersection, Ricoh’s building is a giant cylindrical tower which gives the gallery an unusual floor plan consisting of two concentric circles. Viewers move along the curving space as new pieces continue to present themselves.

If you are in Japan, look for a few write-ups of the exhibition in Commercial Photo and Nippon Camera. And if you happen to be in Tokyo and are planning on seeing the exhibition, let us know. We would love to hear your thoughts and see your pictures.

We are very happy to be able to share this exceptional collection of work with the world through our fantastic collaboration with Ricoh. In addition to bringing the entire exhibition to their gallery, Ricoh is giving a GXR digital camera to each of the two recipients of the ONWARD ‘11 Juror Awards, Sandy Alpert and Mary Beth Meehan. Take a look at their websites to see the excellent projects they have been working on. And if you have not been able to see the works in person, you can view all of the images from ONWARD ‘11 in our online web gallery.

Stay connected for more info as ONWARD progresses.

Installation Views:

This Friday, celebrated photographer Linda Connor will be joined in our gallery by a distinguished group of artists including David Graham, Lonnie Graham, Emmet Gowin, Martha Madigan, Andrea Modica & Stuart Rome. Each participant will give a glimpse into what they are currently working on. On Saturday, Linda will return to present an extended talk on her acclaimed body of work.

Seven I/Eyes runs in conjunction with Linda Connor’s weekend workshop Direction and Inspiration. This critique-based workshop will help participants situate there own bodies of work within the context of other artists and movements and help them move boldly forward with new projects and trajectories.

Day 1 – Six I/Eye’s: Featuring Recent Work by 6 Photographers
Friday, April 1 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm)
Complimentary wine & cheese
Presenting Artists: David Graham, Lonnie Graham, Emmet Gowin, Martha Madigan, Andrea Modica & Stuart Rome with Linda Connor

Day 2 – One I/Eye: A Talk by Linda Connor
Saturday, April 2 at 6pm

Admission (RSVP required):
$15 for Friday event only
$10 for Saturday event only
$20 for both Friday & Saturday events
(50% discount for students/Friends of Project Basho)

"Ashleigh’s Flowers" by Mary Beth Meehan

During the reception we announced the recipients of the awards and honorable mentions. The chosen photographers are (alphabetical order):

Juror Awards:
Sandy Alpert [Brooklyn, NY]
Mary Beth Meehan [Providence, RI]

Honorable Mention:
Virginie Blachere [New York, NY]
Sarah Cohen [Huntingdon Valley, PA]
Akihiro Furuta [Edogawa, Japan]
Marta Gonzalez [Brooklyn, NY]
Robb Siverson [Fargo, ND]
Rebecca Soderholm [Madison, NJ]

West Collection Purchase Award:
Pierfrancesco Celada [London, UK]

Congratulations to the recipients of these awards as well as all the photographers selected for this year’s show! As winners of the Juror Awards, Sandy Alpert and Mary Beth Meehan are invited to have a joint show at the Project Basho Gallery in 2012. Furthermore, both are invited to attend the opening reception of ONWARD ‘11 Japan, as the exhibition travels to its next destination at Ricoh’s photo gallery, Ring Cube, in Tokyo this May.

If you did not make it out to the opening (or could not penetrate the dense crowd), worry not! The show will be up through the last Sunday of next month, March 27th. Our gallery is open Sunday – Friday, 12 – 10pm. Please make an appointment if visiting after 5pm. If you are unable to make it back to Philadelphia for the exhibition, we will be posting an online gallery of all the work in the coming days.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out to the opening on Saturday! If you had a good time, let us know via Google Places and we will send you a collotype postcard to show our appreciation. Also, if you were snapping pictures, we would love to see them. You can share them with us via Flickr by emailing the images to run39self@photos.flickr.com.

Onward '11 curator, Larry Fink and Honorable Mention photographer, Rebecca Soderholm

We have one more day to go before ONWARD ‘11 opening reception! The reception will be held at Project Basho Gallery from 2 pm. Again our contact information and directions to our studio can be found on our website. We have been hearing from many participants that they will be traveling for the occasion. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us!

Project Basho
215-238-0928
1305 Germantown Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19122 (Click for Google Map)

For those of you visiting Philadelphia this weekend for the ONWARD ‘11 opening, we thought that while you were in town you might be interested in also seeing some other photography or fine art exhibitions or grabbing a bite to eat. Below are some exhibitions that are open throughout the weekend of February 12th and 13th and worth checking out. We have also came up with a list of great spots in the area for food and drinks that some of our staff frequent quite often.

Other Art Exhibitions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center – Wall Space brings together eight artists whose work exists between the boundaries of photography, sculpture and painting, often blurring the lines between the 2nd and 3rd dimensions. 1400 N. American Street, Suite 103.12pm-6pm.  Free.

Gallery 339 – Rita Bernstein: Ghost of Summer. Rita Bernstein further explores this dichotomy of heart versus mind through her print-making process, which demands a high level of skill yet remains uncertain and serendipitous. Martine Fougeron: After Prom. In 2005, Fougeron began photographing her sons, presenting the subtle, beautiful details of daily life through informal portraits of these young teenagers. 339 South 21st Street. Saturday, 10am-6pm. Free.

An image from Daniel Traub's "Lots" series at The Print Center.

The Print Center - Stalking the Wild Asparagus: Keliy Anderson-Staley, Adrain Chesser and Timothy White Eagle, Lucas Foglia, Taj Forer and Justine Kurland. A group exhibition of photographers documenting intentional communities in the United States. Daniel Traub: Lots. Philadelphia photographer, Daniel Traub has created an extensive body of work documenting the people and places of Philadelphia. 1614 Latimer Street. 11:00 am – 5:30 pm. Free.

Philadelphia Museum of Art – Mark Cohen: Strange Evidence. This exhibition surveys a select group of some fifty of Mark Cohen’s black-and-white and color photographs made over the past forty years. Live Cinema/In the Round: Contemporary Art from the East Mediterranean. Six artists from the Eastern Mediterranean who, in varying ways, explore how the moving image informs representations of reality. Main building: 26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19130. 10am- 5pm, Fridays 10am- 8:45pm. $16 (Perelman incl.) Perelman Building: Fairmount and Pennsylvania Avenues. 10am- 5pm. $8.

Fleischer Ollman Gallery – Off Camera surveys photographic works that have been drawn on or painted, animated, collaged or made into sculpture. The exhibition includes a wide range of artists who set aside photography’s conventions, instead relying on invention when the media or the world does not meet expectations. 1616 Walnut, Suite 100. Monday- Friday 10:30am- 5:30pm, Saturday 12pm- 5pm. Free.

Institute of Contemporary Art – Set Pieces – Curated by Virgil Marti From the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Set Pieces re-stages objects and art works from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Organized by guest curator Virgil Marti, a Philadelphia-based artist, the selection of seventy-five objects taps treasures from the museum’s storage spanning three centuries. Shary Boyle & Emily Duke; The Illuminations Project. Looking for an alternative to the convention in which images illustrate texts and texts explicate images, Shary Boyle and Emily Duke developed a looser, more associative method of combining words and pictures. 118 South 36th Street (at Sansom). 11am-5pm. Free.

PAFA – Anatomy/ Academy: Coinciding with the return to the museum of Thomas Eakins’s The Gross Clinic, Anatomy/Academy will draw on PAFA’s rich collections, complemented by loans from Philadelphia institutions, private collections, and museums. 128 N. Broad St. 10am- 5pm. $10.

Restaurants in the Area

Lite Bites
Cafe La Maude – This French-inspired place is Tsuyoshi’s favorite these days. They serve really great sandwiches (will not even try to pronounce it but it is on top right corner of the menu board). The atmosphere is simply great!
Taco Riendo – You’ve got to try this Mexican restaurant which serves great tacos, burritos, and other authentic favorites. This is Tsuyoshi’s regular lunch spot!
Quince- This quaint, cute place serves very healthy, honest food day in, day out. Also great to grab a cup of joe. Say hi to Nicole, the owner she’s very lovely to chat with!
Paesano’s – Simply put: the best Italian-inspired sandwiches you’ll find anywhere on Earth. This small lunch counter is staffed by some of the friendliest Philadelphians you’ll find. We heard they just filmed an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay…and won!
The Foodery – If you are looking for consistently good, fresh sandwiches, this is where we order for students and instructors every time we run a workshop. They are also known for the selection of take-out beers. Say hi to Jay making sandwiches for you in the kitchen!
George’s Pizza – Did you remember a pizza shop in our announcement video? This is the place. Say hi to George!

Dinner
Bar Ferdinand – This Spanish tapas restaurant is first-rate. We take instructors here and have business meetings here time and time again.
El Camino Real – Try their Tex-Mex BBQ. They have great margaritas as well.
Tiffin – If you are looking for great Indian food, this is the place.
North 3rd – Great selection of bar food.
Standard Tap – One of the best selections of local beers.
Johnny Brenda’s – Really cool vibes and a great take on bar food, think falafel, burgers, and beer. Concerts almost every night.

View ONWARD ‘11. Exhibitions and places to eat in Philadelphia in a larger map

With all of the ways to view photography on the internet, it is reassuring to know that books continue to thrive as a preferred way to view the medium. Photography books also offer the perfect package when viewing a series, as they allow one to follow a narrative or story the way the photographer, editors, and designers intended. Few know this better than legendary photographer, Larry Fink. Throughout his career of over 40 years, he has published eight books, with another, The Vanities, forthcoming.

In his first and perhaps most paramount monograph, Social Graces, Larry Fink set out to represent the starkly contrasting lives of blue collar families from rural Pennsylvania by placing them next to photographs depicting decadent New York social circles. The series of photographs was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1979, the perfect setting for the elite to see themselves in Fink’s unflattering light.

Like much of the work throughout his career, Social Graces forces viewers to ponder the ever-growing social divide that plagues America and is still poignant over 25 years after it was initially published. The intimacy and empathetic documentary-style that marks the photographs of the working-class contrast with Fink’s highly stylized party photographs, a testament to his talent in uncovering the ugliness that lies within his affluent subjects.

Copies of Social Graces will be available for purchase at the ONWARD ‘11 opening reception at Project Basho on Saturday, February 12th from 2-5pm. Copies of ONWARD ‘08 juror Andrea Modica’s Treadwell as well as ONWARD ‘10 juror, Debbie Fleming Caffery’s The Spirit & The Flesh will also be available.

See you all at the ONWARD opening on Saturday!

Susan Hayre Thelwell's "Leap" from the ONWARD '10 exhibition.

The rapid advances in self-publishing have made dreams of producing your own photo book a reality for many photographers over the course of the past couple of years. While self-publishing has existed for quite some time (see the reference to Ed Ruscha’s Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations in this article from the UK’s Guardian newspaper), its ubiquity has burgeoned thanks to companies that allow you to construct your own book from scratch like Blurb and Lulu and sites like Self Publish Be Happy that curate a selection of self-published photo books to be sold. As the trend grows it allows photographers to use their books in new and exciting ways.

While self-publishing companies make it possible to get your book printed, it’s not always so easy to work through constructing a proper edit and layout on your own, or getting your images properly optimized for print. That’s why ONWARD ‘10 selected photographer Susan Hayre Thelwell will be teaching a workshop at Project Basho March 5th and 6th called Self-publishing Your Photobook. The workshop’s aim is to ensure that you understand how a book goes from separate images to a cohesive publication.

We’re excited the have a past ONWARD photographer teaching a workshop at Project Basho. Susan is a New Mexico-based photographer and educator and her gorgeous project, Mitchell’s Lot, which follows Texas goat farmers who sell their goats for halal meat, has been featured in PDN and in Fraction magazines. Her Blurb book was awarded Honorable Mention in the Blurb Photography.Book.Now competition in 2008. Spaces are still open in the workshop and you may register online here.

Whether you are interested in displaying your latest series or to have a portfolio to show potential clients, a well-made photography book is the perfect tangible medium. Self-publishing puts a polished spin on the old cathartic days of zine-making and allows you to produce something more presentable and packaged.