Visual Arts Briefs

For the cover story “What Is It About 20-Somethings?”, The New York Times Magazine asked 13 young photographers to take photos exploring the identity of their generation. Alumni Bon Duke (BFA 2009 Photography) and  Ina Jang (BFA 2010 Photography) were among the photographers whose images were featured on the cover page. Additionally, 12 of Jang’s images, mostly of young adults with their faces masked, appear on the the table of contents.

Click here to see the images on the Times Web site.

Alumnus Noah Kalina (BFA 2003 Photography) first became nationally recognized when a YouTube video he created—a time-lapse montage of photos Kalina had taken of himself every day for several years—went viral, getting over a million views in a single night. Gawker recently caught up with Kalina, who spoke about his project “everyday,” which he still maintains on his Web site.

Better known to most by her pseudonym Suzy Hotrod, alumnus Jean Schwarzwalder (BFA 2003 Photography) is the captain of the Gotham Girls Roller Derby team Queens of Pain. Schwarzwalder spoke with The Examiner about working in photography and music, as well as how she found her way to the roller derby.

With his images of views through train windows taken in Budapest, alumnus Adam Hester (BFA 2006 Photography) was included in the 2010 Communication Arts Photography Annual. The annual catalogs the best photography of the year, and Hester’s images (which appear on pages 156 – 157 of the magazine) were among the 147 winning projects selected from over 6,000 entries.

We asked SVA students and faculty to send in work they were creating over the summer. This is one in an occasional series of Summer Session posts.

BFA Photography Department student Patricia Voulgaris is working on a series of images called The Scanned, which use a photo scanner to depict the artist manipulating household objects.

Images: Patricia Voulgaris, untitled images from The Scanned, 2010.

The Tracey Baran Award, a scholarship fund established in the memory of alumnus Tracey Baran (BFA 1997 Photography), is accepting applications for 2010. A $5,000 fellowship grant will go to one female photographer in the U.S. The award was created by a partnership between the BFA Photography Department and the Estate of Tracey Baran and was funded by the 2009 Tracey Baran Memorial Auction.

This year’s award recipient will be selected by a jury panel that includes photographers Jen Davis and Christine Osinski, and Leslie Tonkonow, director of Leslie Tonkonow Artworks+Projects. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, September 1; information about the award and how to apply can be found at traceybaranaward.org.

Image: Tracey Baran, Oasis, 2004. Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks+Projects.

Photos by current student in the BFA Photography Department Elle Ribera are featured on the Web site for German Vogue. Click here to view some of Ribera’s fashion images.

With photographs of New York City women in rainboots, Samantha Nodelman, a current student in the BFA Photography Department, won Sporto’s 2010 Photography Competition. Nodelman scouted locations and paired the models with the brand’s boots, putting together a winning portfolio that can be seen on the Sporto Web site.

The summer exhibition season is in full swing at SVA, and five new shows opened their doors on Tuesday, July 6. The Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor, is presenting a quartet of exhibitions: “That’s Just It,” a collection of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and mixed-media work by 2010 graduates of the MFA Fine Arts Department; “Serial Intentions,” showing sculpture and installation by students and recent graduates that examines the boundaries between representation and abstraction; “Camera Work,” an exhibition of film and photography by current students exploring portraiture, social commentary and organic abstraction; and “The Slow Motion Show,” which brings together drawing, video, collage and interactive performance art by recent graduates interpreting slow motion as a device used to reveal the unnoticed. All four exhibitions are on view through Monday, August 14, at the Visual Arts Gallery, and there is an opening reception on July 6, 6 – 8pm.

On the east side of the SVA campus, the SVA Gallery, 209 East 23rd Street, is hosting “In leaves no step had trodden black,” an exhibition of work by selected alumni of the BFA Photography Department. The title borrows a line from the Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken,” suggesting the innumerable possibilities of implied narrative within the photography included in the exhibition. “In leaves no step had trodden black” runs through Tuesday, July 20, and a reception for the artists takes place July 6, 6 – 8pm.

Images: (top) Hye Soon Hwang, Everyday, 2010, from “That’s Just It”; (bottom) Lisa Elmaleh, Mangroves, 2010, from “In leaves no step had trodden black.”

Of the five student awards given at The New York Photo Festival this year, two went to SVA graduates: Natan Dvir (MFA 2010 Photography, Video and Related Media) and Stanislava Georgieva (BFA 2010 Photography). Dvir won in the Social Documentary – Essay category, and Gerogieva won in the Fine Art – Series competition. Both Dvir and Georgieva will have their work included in the New York Photo Awards 2010 Annual book as well as the forthcoming New York Photo Festival 2011.