The Photography & New Media department and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts wishes congratulations to New Pictures 5 artist Jason Fulford for his recognition in Aperture’s summer issue.  A non-profit dedicated to promoting the development and appreciation of photography, Aperture was founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Dorothea Lange and Barbara Morgan, and it continues to advance great work in imagery.

Jason’s Mushroom Project is featured on the cover of the upcoming Issue 207, along with a six-page spread of photographs from his New Pictures installation, shots of his mushrooms in multiple galleries throughout the MIA, and an interview with the artist, “Jason Fulford:  Mushroom Collector.”

If you missed Jason’s exhibition at the MIA, watch a synopsis here.  The issue also includes New Pictures 6 artist Martin Parr on location in Atlanta, in Up and Down Peachtree.

Martin Parr relished the challenge of shooting “something half decent” over his three day visit to the Twin Cities in January, where “people are addicted to this cold weather” for outdoor winter activities.  In regards to making pictures in America, Parr noted, “virtually no one objects to being photographed. [...] No wonder there’s so much good American photography.”

View Parr at work, describing his experience of photographing Minnesota winter sports on the artsmia YouTube page.

New Pictures 6: Martin Parr, on view Friday April 20th – Sunday, August 5, 2012
Linda and Lawrence Perlman Gallery (262)
Free Exhibition

Visit the MIA next Thursday night, April 19th, for the opening of New Pictures 6: Martin Parr.

Here’s a taste of Parr’s new work:

Alec Soth, who wrote an article last month on Martin Parr’s recent sojourn to Minnesota, also wrote a piece in late 2011 speculating on photographers’ peak creative years.  Martin came across the blog and responded, in part:

“You need that raw energy and excitement that feeds into new and exciting work, associated with the 20s and early 30s. Very few achieve even that , let alone sustain this into their long careers. I once said in an interview that I thought my best work was probably behind me, and this now is quoted back to me everytime I do another interview. [...] OK we keep going , trying to be fresh, but we know too much, are too comfortable, even if you fight laziness by working hard. It doesn’t mean you cannot make a useful contribution later on, but it ain’t going to have the edge that the early work , so often delivers.”

Martin also said there are exceptions.

New Pictures 6: Martin Parr opens in a few weeks.  If you missed it, here’s a taste of the new work Parr made in Minnesota over a long January weekend, as reviewed by Curt Brown of the Star Tribune:  Frozen Face of Minnesota.

New Pictures 6: Martin Parr runs April 19th-August 5th

Thomas Seely, of weekly online radio show Art Uncovered, takes a deeper look into The Sports Show, asking why  sports and the visual arts often fail to coincide in academic discussion.   Featured are pieces such as those by Eadweard Muybridge, Alexander Rodchenko and Kota Ezawa.  With the help of curator David Little, audio overlays from Paul Pfeiffer’s The Saints and a Muhammad Ali interview as well as musical interludes, Seely’s program reveals thoughtful angles on the exhibition.

Check your chains and  pump up those tires!  Sports Show Tickets are available (free for members) through May 13th.

Renowned photographer and blogging legend Alec Soth writes on Martin Parr’s presence in the photographic world and Parr’s recent visit to Minnesota.  Soth calls British photographer and his friend the “Jay-Z of documentary photography.”  Read more and see the layout as well on the link below.

View more of Parr’s images of our winter existence, and a Star Tribune article by Curt Brown.

At the request of the MIA, Martin Parr spent a long January weekend in Minnesota documenting our outdoor winter games. View his work at New Pictures 6: Martin Parr, opening April 20, 2012.

Photographer Martin Parr, whose pictures will be on view in New Pictures 6, visited MN for four days to take pictures of winter sports.   His comments on inspiration offer some insights into his approach to such a project.

“We live in a difficult but inspiring world, and there is so much out there that I want to record. However you cannot photograph everything, so I have to select subjects that throw light on the relationship I have with the world. This is often expressed as an ambiguity or a contradiction. Look at tourism, for example. We have an idea of what a famous site will look like as we’ve seen the photos – but when you get there, the reality is usually different. This rub between mythology and reality is the inspiration – and the contradiction.

Inspiration can also come when a good connection is made with the subject. The nature and quality of this connection can vary enormously. It may range from getting into a small community and winning the trust of the subjects over a number of visits; but it could also come from walking in the mountains and feeling a certain affinity with the landscape.

The knack is to find your own inspiration, and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.”

I am delighted to announce that British photographer Martin Parr will be the next New Pictures artist at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts this spring.  Martin will cross the Atlantic in a few weeks to shoot photos covering the wealth of winter activities in Minnesota, from pond hockey to ice fishing. Given Martin’s track record of capturing the British middle class and international wealth, we expect a unique and foreign take on cultural and athletic life in our state.

A member of the esteemed Magnum Photos, an international photographers’ cooperative, Parr is one of the most renowned and celebrated photographers working today. He is known for his innovative use of color photography and his humorous approach to documenting the daily rituals of life. Parr is also recognized for his work as an editor of photo-based publications, and is credited with more than twenty compilations of his own work. In 2008, he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal and the Baume & Mercier award for his career contributions to contemporary photography.

New Pictures 6: Martin Parr opens April 20, 2012 and runs through the summer.

In the spring of1933, Ansel Adams traveled from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the east coast to visit New York City for the first time in his life. In a series of interviews conducted by The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, Adams recounts a number of important meetings with leading art figures, such as photography impresario Alfred Stieglitz, painters Marsden Hartley and John Marin and critic Paul Rosenberg. One of his most memorable and humorous is with documentary photographer, Doris Ulmann, whose photograph “Two Men at Work (c. 1916-1925) is in the MIA’s collection. http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/10965/two-men-at-work

“She was the one that did a lot of photography in Appalachia and of the Negroes in the South. A very wealthy woman with an old Mercedes car and a German chauffeur. Took pictures of everybody who came to see her. Had this great eight by ten camera and a flimsy tripod. And while her exposure of me was going on, I could see the camera swaying [Laughter] So, I said, “You know, Doris, really, your tripod’s terrible.” [She said,] “You know, I just can’t get sharp pictures. I thought it was the lens.” I said, “It’s the tripod.” [She said,] “Well, will you help pick one out?” So the next day I was picked up in the car and we went down to Willoughby’s and all the other big photography stores; finally got her a tripod that would hold her eight by ten monstrosity up. And then she’d go to the lens cases in the store and said, “ I want that one and that one and that one.” God knows how many lenses that woman had. She just would buy lenses like Virginia [Adams’ wife] would buy, “Cool and Creamy” at the Safeway. [Laughter] But she had a very fine feeling and did many fine things. She had book[s] publish.  We have several [of her] books.

Stop by the Target Wing atrium at the MIA to see a selection of photographs dealing with typecasting.  The show features work by August Sander, Pieter Hugo, Richard Avedon, and Xavier Tavera.