Bryan Adams Unveils the Hear the World Ambassadors Photo Exhibit in Zurich

Bryan Adams Unveils the Hear the World Ambassadors Photo Exhibit in Zurich photolover7766688888888888

Bryan Adams standing besides his photograph of Lindsay Lohan at the opening of the exhibition a few months ago in New York.

ZURICH.- Bryan Adams, famous musician and official photographer of Hear the World, an initiative by Phonak, introduced the «Hear the World Ambassadors» photography collection Tuesday evening in Zurich. Adams photographed world-famous musicians such as Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox and Rod Stewart in an iconic hearing pose exclusively for Hear the World. Numerous Swiss celebrities from show business, the art world and the world of business joined Bryan Adams and the approximately 500 invited guests at the grand opening. Following successful exhibitions in New York and Berlin, the collection will be on display at PULS 5 in Zurich-West from September 24-28, 2008. Hear the World is a global Phonak initiative to raise awareness about the importance of good hearing and the impact of hearing loss. Approximately 500 million people around the world suffer from hearing loss. Together with Valentin Chapero, CEO of Sonova Holding AG (which includes the main brand Phonak), Adams opened the Zurich exhibition and reaffirmed his commitment to Hear the World. «As a musician, I’m naturally sympathetic to an initiative dedicated to helping people appreciate and preserve an individual’s sense of sound,» said Adams. «I hope that our exhibit will help remind people of the tremendous value of their hearing.» «Bryan has devoted a tremendous amount of time and talent to the initiative,» said Chapero, when thanking Adams for his invaluable contribution. «He has helped us to bring the Hear the World message to as many people as possible. We’re lucky to have him as a partner. His photos are helping us get our initiative ’heard.’ With the Hear the World campaign we are assuming social responsibility as the industry leader, while helping to increase understanding of the importance of good hearing and the impact of hearing loss.» «After having my own hearing loss diagnosed a year ago, I became acutely aware of the importance of the ability to hear,» said Kurt Aeschbacher, a Swiss Hear the World ambassador who moderated the grand opening. «I felt compelled to support Hear the World.» Portraits for a good cause Bryan Adams has been the official Hear the World photographer since the start of the initiative. He photographed initiative ambassadors such as Harry Belafonte, Plácido Domingo and Joss Stone cupping their ear, in a conscious pose of hearing. The resulting images are fascinating portraits for the senses that are now on display in Zurich from September 24 to 28 after being exhibited in New York and Berlin.

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The Sixties: Photographs By Robert Altman At Idea Generation Gallery

The Sixties: Photographs By Robert Altman At Idea Generation Gallery photolover7788868889988

Robert Altman, The Sixties. © Robert Altman. The Sixties: Photographs by Robert Altman, will be at the Idea Generation Gallery from 16th July - 29th August 2008. 11 Chance Street, London E2, 020 7749 6851. Admission: Free. www.ideageneration.co.uk

LONDON.- This summer, Idea Generation Gallery invites you to take a trip…down Memory Lane, through Haight-Ashbury and across Golden Gate Park to turn on, tune in, drop out at the naked love-ins and anti-war sit-ins; at the psychedelic be-ins and the politicised happenings and meditate upon the spirit, body and soul of The Sixties - the first UK exhibition from Robert Altman, chief staff photographer of Rolling Stone, at Idea Generation Gallery (on view through 29th August.) The exhibition brings together 60 of the most powerful images from Altman’s extensive portfolio. As one of the lead Rolling Stone photographers in the magazine’s heyday of the late sixties and early seventies, Altman’s exquisitely candid shots capture the luminaries of every sphere of influence – from politics and music through to the everyday revolutionaries and children of free love – and creates an extraordinary photographic journey through the historic moments of political; social and cultural revolution that have come to define ‘The Sixties’. Altman’s images provide the ultimate visual narrative to the era; when the contradictory forces & emotions of nascent hippy idealism and free love ran parallel to revolution, radicalism and civil unrest, all of it underscored by an unerring optimism, and a belief - born out of frustration at the status quo, the government and The Man - that change was both necessary and within their grasp. Altman takes us on a journey through his Sixties - from the very epicentre of the scene as a Rolling Stone photographer - introducing us to the key players on the way. Whether getting us a front row seat at some of the best gigs (including many iconic Rolling Stone front covers); or rallying us to march alongside the protesters; or letting it all hang out with the flower children indulging in some free-love to boot, Altman’s Sixties is the one we all wish we had lived through. FREE LOVE - Flowers in their hair; wandering free in the Elysian fields of California – the ‘free love’ ideal of the 60’s is one of the most resonant and revered legacies of the period. In a world often consumed with violence and anger, Flower Children – or hippies – put love and sex at the core of everything natural and harmonious. Altman’s own portraits are a testament to the age of innocence, beauty and joy that hippies have come to represent. THE POLITICS - If there was one thing the Sixties taught its children, it was that they had the power to change the world. And change it they did. As millions of people rose up in protest to fight for what they believed was right across the world, the spirit of revolution manifested itself in a very specific way in America. With their men fighting an unwanted war in Vietnam; and their own racial segregation; the young of the U.S. picked up on the revolu sweeping through the students and streets of Europe and ran with it in their own unique way. From Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally; to the mass throngs staging be-ins, Altman captures the spirit of revolution as it surged through the country, showing these moments of anarchy and rebellion as they were – passionate; dedicated; thunderous; and in so many cases, effective. THE PEOPLE The infamous ‘counter-culture’ that has come to define the Sixties in America wouldn’t have existed without certain key people that were making it happen. Jann Wenner, the founder and publisher of Rolling Stone pioneered journalism that tackled what was happening in the world head on; throwing aside diplomacy and reverence and giving voice to every concern, agitation and protest that its readers felt. Dennis Hopper’s performance in Easy Rider immortalised the drug culture that was taking place in film, whilst Ken Kesey was living it. Bobby Seale and Kathleen Cleaver fought for rights for African-American’s, while Cesar Chavez led the way for farm workers. Altman’s images are a catalogue of the influencers, opinion formers and icons of the Sixties, capturing them as they did their bit to shape the increasingly extraordinary world they were living in. THE MUSIC - If the Sixties were about revolution and rebirth, there was no greater evidence of this than on the music scene. The British invaded America; psychedelia reigned on the West Coast; Beat poets and avant-garde artists took to the stage at Andy Warhol’s Factory and The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan changed the face of popular music for good. The Sixties contains landmark images – many of which made the front cover of Rolling Stone - of some of music’s biggest stars, including Mick Jagger; Joni Mitchell, Roger Daltrey, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner; Elton John and numerous others in performance; in conversation. As artists realised their music could influence people’s hearts and minds, festivals such as Woodstock brought millions of people together in harmony while the chords of popular song responded to the discord in society. Music was the universal medium that transcended generation, class and creed – and, as future generations would realise, time. Altman’s selection of images capture the musical revolution in all its glory. “For me, The Sixties is the time of Sgt Pepper, Woodstock, the Summer of Love, be-ins, anti-war protests, and everything else in between,” comments Altman. “Part of the magic of The Sixties was that we knew there were thousands and thousands, perhaps millions, of us spread beyond the United States and all across the world,” observes Altman. “I absolutely knew that this was something different and something very special. Those days were unlike any our generation had even heard of before, much less experienced. You might say we lit the fuse to the Roaring Twentieth Century.” "Having grown up in a what was by contrast a very grey, cold and damp Britain during the 70's & 80's, the idea of late sixties California has always had an almost mythical, dreamy quality – driven, no doubt by the power of Hollywood on an impressionable young mind,’ comments Hector Proud, managing director of Idea Generation Gallery. “Robert’s images, though, are very much a first person narrative. Of course, he’s a sympathetic observer – he’s photographing his own – but this is nevertheless a true portrayal of his age. The passion for what he was shooting is wonderfully clear, but there’s more to it than that. It’s almost as if he’s distilled the essence of the era - you get a real sense of the drama, excitement, hope, anger, idealism of the time. It makes for some iconic images. “It's said that The Sixties, and much of what it stood for, began to unravel at the Altamont gig in ‘69 - and that's probably not far from the truth. However, when you look at Robert's images, you realise that the spirit of the sixties will always be alive in these images. He’s captured so many aspects of the era so cleanly, that you practically feel you are there. And I think that's the greatest compliment that you can pay to him; he's ensured that the sixties and what it represented to him & his contemporaries, will endure for as long as we look at these pictures.”

Jeu de Paume Opens Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004

Jeu de Paume Opens Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 photolover7766558888888

Twiggy, coiffure de Ara Gallant studio de Paris, janvier 1968. Photographie Richard Avedon. © 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation.

PARIS.- This exhibition is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work since his death in 2004. After the Louisiana Museum (24 August 2007 to 13 January 2008), it is being presented this summer at the Jeu de Paume Concorde, where it will occupy the entire space. The exhibition brings together 270 works spanning Richard Avedon’s career from 1946 to 2004. There are of course fashion photographs, but above all there are photographs of figures from the worlds of politics, literature, the arts and show business. In Paris, at the initiative of Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume, this selection will be enriched by some forty large-format prints from In the American West, the series produced by Avedon from 1979 to 1984. Richard Avedon started working for Harper’s Bazaar in 1945. He joined Vogue in 1966. His pictures metamorphosed fashion photography, which he found too static and stuffy, by emphasising movement and capturing his models in public spaces such as parks nightclubs and shops. Avedon set out to recreate everyday and social situations, and to give the impression that, as in photojournalism, his photographs were taken spontaneously, on the spur of the moment. After the Second World War the supremacy of New York meant that its fashion photographers were sent over to Paris to photograph the European collections. Avedon regularly photographed the designs of the major Parisian couture houses through to 1984. In the 1960s Avedon went back to the studio and the neutral background in order highlight the beauty and mobility of his subjects. In parallel to his fashion photographs, Richard Avedon made numerous portraits, radically transforming the codes of genre, as did that other great American photographer, Irving Penn. But Avedon went even further than Penn. He shattered the iconic images of the stars of show business, literature, the arts and the political elite in the United States. His portraits show all the facets of his models’ personality, however great their mastery of the codes of representation. The use of white grounds, the bareness of the compositions, helped to bring a searching psychological dimension to each subject. Generally speaking, Avedon sought to capture the true nature of things rather than to reproduce them superficially. During his photography sessions, he sought out that very special moment when he could capture and set down the psychological intensity emanating from the sitter. For, to photograph someone “meant looking beyond the charm of the face and establishing a relation between the vital presence of the other and his own, that is to say, finding the moment when everything converged and happened.” “(…) In the American West was the result of a commission from the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas. From 1979 to 1984, Avedon photographed men and women in the American West, most of them working folk. In the process, he travelled across several states of the Great Plains and the Rockies, paying special attention to specific sites and events such as ranches, coalmines, cattle fairs, oil wells, slaughterhouses, truck stops, modest diners and offices. He photographed the homeless, housewives, cowboys, miners, prisoners and rodeo riders. His strategy was to build up a network of portraits, weaving a series of psychological, sociological, physical and familial connections between these individuals who had never met. All the photos in this series were taken in broad daylight and outdoors, looking for a certain quality of shadow, against a simple white paper backdrop hung on the side of a truck. The uncompromising photographs that resulted caused quite a controversy when they were first shown in Texas because of Avedon’s “demystifying” vision of that Promised Land, the American West, that land of pioneers and conquerors.” (Marta Gili, from the preface to the catalogue) Richard Avedon put his talent as a photographer at the service of the social causes and political evens that shook American society in the 1960s and 70s. He made several reports on the Civil Rights movements in the South (1963), the Ku Klux Klan, and psychiatric hospitals. A pacifist, he photographed hippies demonstrating against the Vietnam War in 1969, and travelled to the country in 1971 to make portraits of the army leaders and of napalm victims. For the French magazine Égoïste he covered the meeting of East and West Berliners at the Brandenburg Gates on 31 December 1989 and 1 January 1990, less than two months after the fall of the Wall.

Rong Rong & inri: The Power of Ruins. Between Destruction and Construction at Casa Asia

Rong Rong & inri: The Power of Ruins. Between Destruction and Construction at Casa Asia photolover66554488888

Rong Rong, We are Here, Beijing 2002. No. 1.

MADRID.- The exhibition that Casa Asia presents aims at displaying part of the photographic route of the work of the Chinese artist Rong Rong (1968, Zhangzhou, province of Fujian, China), between 2000 and 2008. He is one of the most relevant figures of the avant-gardes of the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties of last century. Rong Rong's work begun in the East Village, where he coexisted with artists such as Zhang Huan or Ma Liumin. Exceptional witness of his contemporaries, such as the aforementioned artists, Rong Rong specialised in photography from a beginning, going from the register of the actions and performances of the artists -who made the main contributions to the development of contemporary Chinese art- to the registers of domestic and everyday life in a country and city that began a process of unstoppable mutation.

Photographs by Helmut Newton on View at Weserburg Museum fur Moderne Kunst photolover88666777888898

The Arielle Portfolio I-X, 1982-1999, © Helmut Newton Estate

BREMEN.- “Bullshit! I love the girls; that’s nothing but a feminist misunderstanding.” This was how Helmut Newton several years ago countered the reproach from Alice Schwarzer, the editor-in-chief of Emma, who claimed that he and his nude photographs were sexist, even racist. Newton was used to rejection. His precisely staged photographs, with their deliberately presented sexuality, were acts of social provocation right from the beginning. In the nineteen-sixties, his pictures burst the borders of traditional fashion photography, summoned up a new image of woman and, for that precise reason, made him one of the most famous and highly paid photographers of the twentieth century. From May 31 to December 31, 2008, the Weserburg, Bremen’s Museum for Modern Art, honors Newton’s pioneering artistic production with a comprehensive exhibition: To be seen upon some 750 square meters of exhibition surface are 120 works from numerous private and museum collections. Helmut Newton—Photographs covers the wide spectrum of this revolutionary specialist in fashion- and nude-photography. In addition to the large-format, life-sized Big Nudes, for which Newton derived inspiration from police-investigation photos of the RAF terrorists, there are also on display works from the various photographic series in which the artist laid out the defining motifs of his artistic imagination. Suspenseful nocturnal scenes in a big-city hotel, which give the impression of being part of a film narration, are situated alongside portraits of the stars from the dazzling world of glamour. The photographer of the beautiful and famous, who worked regularly for major fashion magazines throughout the world, never kept to the narrow confines of commissioned work; instead he used the fashion industry as a stage. “With his photographic stagings, Newton gave a visual rendition of woman’s self-aware sexuality in a revolutionary manner,” comments Carsten Ahrens, the director of the Weserburg. “In these photographs, woman never appears as an object of masculine power, but instead as the mistress of her own sexuality. In defiance of all the hostility heaped upon him, not only from clerical and bourgeois quarters but also from leading feminists, he conjured up a new image of woman, one that is characterized by emancipated self-awareness.” Moreover, the exhibition provides insights into the turbulent life of Helmut Newton who—born in Berlin in 1920 as the son of Jewish parents—was able, thanks to his dauntless mother, to flee from Germany in 1938, traveling first to Singapore and then to Australia. At the end of the nineteen-fifties, Newton returned to Europe with his wife June, with little money and grand dreams, first to London and then to Paris, where he began his career as a photographer for Vogue, Elle and Queen. He discovered the decisive motifs for his work in the red-light districts of the city. The nineteen-seventies saw the appearance, with White Women, Sleepless Nights and Big Nudes, of the first books of photographs by Newton, which established his status as a photographic artist. The married couple lived in Monaco and Los Angeles until a tragic automobile accident in January 2004 brought an abrupt end to the life of Helmut Newton.

Bonhams will sell Photographs of Kate Moss made by Tracey Emin, Banksy and Albert Watson

Bonhams will sell Photographs of Kate Moss made by Tracey Emin, Banksy and Albert Watson photolover78866778888

Albert Watson (American, born 1942) 'Kate Moss, Marrakech', 1993. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '3/10' on seperate sheet, gelatin silver print sheet 158.5 x 122cm

LONDON.-The iconic British supermodel, Kate Moss portrayed by three popular artists, Tracey Emin, Banksy and Albert Watson will be sold at Bonhams Vision 21 in Knightsbridge on April 16. Works by Albert Watson include a gelatin silver print of Kate Moss in Marrakech produced in 1993 - estimate £5,000 - 7,000 and a C-Type print on aluminium, Marrakech, 1993 - estimate £3000 - 5,000. Watson is one of the most successful and sought-after fashion and commercial photographers who has produced photographs for magazines such as Vogue, The Face, Rolling Stone and Newsweek. He won various prizes, including a Grammy Award in 1975 for the best design for an LP cover. His crowning achievements include his unprecedented 250 cover images for Vogue - perhaps the ultimate barometer of success for a fashion photographer. A screenprint of Kate Moss by the renowned urban artist, Banksy produced in 2005 is estimated at £30,000 - 50,000, while Tracy Emin, one of the leading YBA (Young British Artists) has produced a plymer gravure etching of the supermodel (estimate £600-800). A unique 'self-portrait' of Andy Warhol (1928-1987) printed by the artist in 1967, in black and blue synthetic polymer and screenprint ink on red graphic art paper is also a fascinating highlight in the Vision 21 sale. Warhol only ever printed a very small number of early works. As his career took off he was able to employ professional printers to assist him. The present work is particularly rare as it is one of the few that Warhol printed himself. Though other examples do exist, on various different sized sheets of coloured and white papers, the print was never properly editioned. This rare work is estimated at £15,000-20,000. Striking portraits of Faye Dunaway and Elton John are among the photographs by Terry O'Neil - the famous British photographer who achieved his greatest success documenting the fashion style and celebrities of the 1960's. Shots include Dunaway sitting relaxed in a chair by the pool with an Oscar on the breakfast table and newspapers scattered around her (£600-800). A photograph by Philippe Halsman, a Latvian-born American photographer, of Sammy Davis Jr. will also be sold (£600-800. Davis is perhaps best known for his 1950's hits such as “Candy Man” and “What Kind of Fool I am” and for his connections with the infamous Brat Pack. Halsman became famous in the 1940's, where he started a thirty-year collaboration with surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Further stars in the sale include Uma Thurman, photographed by Albert Watson in New York in 1993 (£5,000 - 7,000) and Tilda Swinton, shot by the Douglas Brothers (Andrew & Stewart), which is expected to fetch £600 - 800. Each work is signed. A diverse mix of art and design is offered at Vision 21 with work by up and coming artists as well as more established name such as Agnes Martin, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Takashi Murakami, Marc Newson, Philippe Starck and Ron Arad. Vision 21 is an innovative sale that delivers great design and diverse style and inspiration from 1945 to the present day. Conceived four years ago, Vision 21 encompasses Post War Paintings, Prints, Photographs, Sculpture and Modern Design. Bonhams in Knightsbridge has a long-held reputation for innovative ideas and, over the years, has introduced many new areas of collecting - such as Contemporary Ceramics and Rock and Pop Memorabilia, which have challenged traditional categories. The Vision 21 continues to attract a young fashionable crowd of both serious collectors, and those just looking to furnish a modern home.

Groundbreaking Modern Photography on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Groundbreaking Modern Photography on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art photolover55664499888888

Edward Weston, Nude, 1934, gelatin silver print.

BALTIMORE.-The Baltimore Museum of Art opened the exhibit Looking Through the Lens: Photography 1900–1960 through June 8. Discover more than 150 striking vintage prints in this extraordinary exhibition showcasing groundbreaking modern photography. Peruse some of the world’s best-known 20th century photographers including iconic images by European and American artists such as Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks. Drawn from the BMA’s outstanding collection, these rarely shown photographs were produced during a pivotal period in the history of the medium—when photography became fully recognized as an art form. Organized thematically, Looking through the Lens both showcases the work of great artists and illuminates some of the most significant movements and techniques of the first half of the century. Highlights of the exhibition include soft-focus Pictorialist-style photogravures published in Alfred Stieglitz’s ground-breaking journal Camera Work (1903–17), a rare print of Paul Strand’s Bottle, Book and Orange (1916); and brilliant experimental images produced between the wars such as Max Burchartz’s Lotte’s Eye (c. 1928) and Edward Weston’s Pepper (1929). A large selection of works by Man Ray demonstrates the influence of Surrealism, while Edward Steichen’s dramatic images of movie stars and Paul Outerbridge’s vivid carbro color prints of cropped nudes and festive still lifes show the cross-fertilization between art, film, and advertising. Compelling documentary photographs and examples of photojournalism from the late 1930s include Dorothea Lange’s images of migrant farmers in California and Aaron Siskind’s Photo League chronicles of Harlem, as well as works commissioned for Life magazine by Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks. Post-war images by New York School photographers Robert Frank and William Klein capture fleeting moments in America—from parade-goers in Hoboken, New Jersey, to a group of teenagers on the run. The exhibition concludes with Harry Callahan and other teachers at the progressive Institute of Design in Chicago whose work extended the influence of European modernism and anticipated some of the new directions photography would take in the second half of the century.