Bodegon
Paulette Tavormina
Robert Mann Gallery
February 5 – March 21

From the Robert Mann Gallery press release:

Meaning “from the pantry,” Bodegón is inspired by the paintings of 18th-century Spanish still life painter Luis Meléndez. Featuring the elegant everyday cookware of the rustic kitchen, these spreads bring the artist’s signature gift for vibrant simplicity to a new cornucopia of grains, meats and sweets. Hearty loaves bookend bountiful fruits, grounded by burnished copper pots and humbly charismatic country jugs.

Paulette Tavormina: from Bodegon
L: Still Life with Jamón Ibérico, after L.M., 2014
R: Still Life with Quince and Jug, after L.M., 2014
both 36″ x 48″ archival pigment prints

Accompanying Bodegón, Tavormina’s Botanicals series recalls the botanical illustrations of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, re-imagining these scientific studies as exuberant cascades of flora and fauna. A fantastical menagerie of bugs, buds, and dewy blossoms burst against velvety black depths, leading the eye in figure eights around the canvas.  And yet Tavormina’s signature motifs of darkness and decay keep these works from pure flights of fancy—rather, they are visions of life in all of its subtle shades of beauty.

Paulette Tavormina: from Bodegon (Botanicals)
Botanical V (Peonies and Wisteria), 2013
24 x 24 archival pigment print

Paulette Tavormina surrounded by her Botanicals

This is Paulette’s second show with Robert Mann. You can read more of our interactions with her and find links to her website and exhibition’s here. Check her website here for news … she’s got a lot coming in 2015/16!

Tags: Archival Pigment Printing (Inkjet), Exhibitions, Paulette Tavormina, Robert Mann Gallery

Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You
Micheal McLaughlin
Robin Rice Gallery
Jan 14 – February 22

Micheal McLaughlin: Jorf Lasfar, Morocco, 2012
From Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, Robin Rice Gallery, January 2015
30 x 40 archival pigment print

From the Robin Rice Gallery press release:

Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, a reference to the traditional pre-flight instructions of airline hostesses, is fine art photographer Micheal McLaughlin’s collection of the sights found universally in the act of travelling between countries and continents. From dark Hong Kong skylines shot through hotel room windows to the familiar, scratched silver buttons of a New York subway elevator, the resulting images are what McLaughlin describes as being “as much of a peripheral view as they are a direct view of the world.”

Micheal McLaughlin: Ord, 2014
From Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, Robin Rice Gallery, January 2015
24 x 30 archival pigment print

The minimalistic and boldly colorful images are highlighted by their size, which demonstrates a level of detail often missed by an initial glance. Some rectangular, some square, the images are each displayed in large-scale frames. A world traveler by profession, McLaughlin’s new series of images is reminiscent of Ed Ruscha, Richard Diebenkorn, or Wayne Thiebaud, whom the artist cites as some of his many artistic inspirations.

Micheal McLaughlin: Oslo, 2009
From Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, Robin Rice Gallery, January 2015
24 x 30 archival pigment print

A third-generation Brooklynite, Micheal McLaughlin’s interest in photography began at the tender age of 11. He attended the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (BFA, 1983), and now works as a New York-based advertising and editorial location photographer. Among others, his clients include IBM, Apple, and American Express. McLaughlin has received honors from Photo District News, Communication Arts, and the NY Art Directors Club. McLaughlin lists a wide array of artistic influences, from fellow photographers (Robert Frank, Harry Callahan, Diane Arbus) to the writings of authors such as William Faulkner, Graham Greene, and Eudora Welty. This is McLaughlin’s fifth solo exhibition at the Robin Rice Gallery.

Micheal McLaughlin’s install at Robin Rice Gallery, 2015

Micheal McLaughlin has been a customer in LTI/Lightside’s sphere since at least 2000. He’s utilized a wide range of our services over the years and like many of our long-term customers he’s transitioned away from film to digital and back again. True to his form, this exhibition consists of images made between 2008 and 2014 on a variety of devices — from “professional” to casual — a signature mix of film and digital capture.

Tags: Archival Pigment Printing (Inkjet), Exhibitions, Micheal McLaughlin, Robin Rice Gallery

Model
Talia Chetrit
Kaufman Repetto / Milan
November 20 – January 10

Talia Chetrit: Parents in the Sun #1,  2014
From Model, Kaufman Repetto, Milan
20 x 25 digital-c print, acrylic mount

From the Kaufman Repetto press release:

In Model, Talia Chetrit reflects on the complex relationship between reality and representation, investigating themes of authenticity in the photographic medium through the exchange between subject and photographer. Alongside the new series of photographs, a video captures Talia Chetrit’s parents – present in earlier photographic works – as unwitting subjects of a collection of video clips. Parents candidly records the self-conscious posturing of the artist’s mother and father, contrasting the act of staging an image with the relationships created in the act of photographic portrayal.

While Talia Chetrit photographs, a digital camera films the artist’s unsuspecting parents, capturing interstitial situations – bits of conversations and gestures – whose intimacy is made public. The video exposes what happens behind the curtains of the photographic sessions, moments which lead to an image but are normally left out of the final photograph, revealing the view of the artist as curious, voyeuristic and directorial. Explicitly rendered is a vulnerable and private exchange between three members of a family, as well as a photographer and her models.

Talia Chetrit: Parents, 2014
Installation view, Kaufman Repetto, Milan

This process exposes artifice – the posing of subjects for a desired effect – while simultaneously revealing the net of relationships that exist between husband and wife, parents and daughter. Accordingly, the family unit alternates between complicity and disobedience to the power dynamic that exists between the photographer and the portrayed subject. The ostensible sincerity of the candid camera gives a window to the illusory character of photography.

The accompanying series of photographs show Talia Chetrit’s parents gazing into each other’s eyes, then at their phones or a compact mirror, then back at the camera lens. Employing a number of photographic styles, the components of which allude to authenticity or staging, Chetrit debases the tropes of portraiture. Encountered after viewing Parents in the adjacent gallery, a seemingly candid image taken from a second floor balcony feels intently posed. The use of three different camera formats further highlight the ways in which the fabrication of an image influences its reception.

The interrelation of the video and photographic works in Model places emphasis on the unseen structures inherent to photography, investigating the role of photographer and subject as both attempt to fashion an image that reads as sincere. What becomes visible through Talia Chetrit’s laying bare of her working process is that from behind the camera lens sincerity can also be constructed.

Talia Chetrit: Parents / Trees, 2014
From Model, Kaufman Repetto, Milan
20 x 24 conventionally enlarged silver gelatin print, museum board mount

Aside from the video piece, this exhibition includes (5) digital-c prints and (5) conventionally enlarged silver gelatin prints. You can see installation views and more from Kaufman Repetto here.

This is LTI/Lightside’s third solo exhibition  with Talia Chetrit — see more here.

Tags: B+W Silver Gelatin Printing, Digital-C Printing, Exhibitions, Kaufman Repetto, Mounting, Talia Chetrit

Well, they asked us again … and we did it again! This time, we printed around (75) 12 x 12 pieces for the Robert Frank Open Road themed benefit auction. The silent auction contained offerings from a pretty impressive group of image makers: Zoe Crosher, Christina DeMiddel, Henny Garfunkel, Olivia Bee, Elinor Carucci, Amy Elkins, Gail Albert Halaban, Robin Schwartz — and that’s just a random selection of women artists we’ve already worked with here at LTI/Lightside!

As you can see — the silent auction pieces were clustered together in a tight space that saw upwards of 800 people pass through over the course of the evening! A big thanks goes directly to Carol Boss of Hahnemuhle USA for generously contributing the necessary rolls of their wonderful Photo Silk Baryta 310 paper.

There was live auction for various prints as well, the sales of which took place during a sit down dinner that included a number of  laudatory speeches aimed at Robert Frank (the honoree of the night). Then there was a bit showmanship from Alex Soth and Billy Bragg before the evening essentially evolved (devolved?) into a rock show headlined by The Kills.

And that, is how you throw a fabulous New York City style benefit event!

Tags: Aperture Foundation, Archival Pigment Printing (Inkjet)

Since long before LTI became LTI/Lightside — and actually, even before Aurora became Portagallo, which, if that means anything to you then you know we’re talking over 30 years of New York City lab history here — Robert Polidori has been processing film with us and/or our predecessors. Some here are hesitant to call the total number of sheets processed in the 100,000’s (it’s a bit like guessing the number of pennies in a pickle jar) but no one denies that literally tens-of-thousands of sheets of his C-41 film — in 4 x 5, 5 x 7, 8 x 10 and 11 x14 formats — have come though the labs over the years.

LTI/Lightside: Robert Polidori in September, 2014

It’s a staggering volume of film (and oy – chemistry!), which, is saying a lot for a man who already expressed consternation over his carbon footprint in a 2007 interview with Michele Gerber Klein for Bomb Magazine. Anyway, all this shooting — combined with his dauntless enthusiasm and relentless drive has produced an equally staggering volume of known visual material. Over the years Polidori’s work has been been seen in countless magazines, he’s published over a dozen books and continuously exhibits in galleries and museums around the world. It fact, one could argue that the world itself — is his palate.

So, while awe inspiring, it is not a total surprise that one of his current projects combines massive amounts of film with widely sweeping vistas of urban landscapes in a proportion unseen by anyone before. Regarding this work: I’ll step out on a limb here and say I truly believe that this man’s single-minded obsessive quest to encapsulate his vision has lead to a benchmark in photographic reproduction unseen before — and I invite anyone to show me otherwise. Yes, perhaps the US military (or NASA) has a few tricks that they have not revealed yet … but this man stands alone, with his two feet on the earth — and under his own volition uses an 11 x 14 view camera to capture what is before him in exacting detail. And as if that were not enough, he’s now compositing multiples of these huge negatives into enormous files and outputs that — again — I do not believe anyone has ever seen the likes of before.

Robert Polidori: Favela Rocinha # 1, Rio de Janeiro, 2009
112.2″ x 176.9″ UV cured ink on aluminum

From the Galerie Karsten Greve press release:

— in the panoramas of his series entitled Dendritic Cities [Polidori] confronts the phenomenon of the rampant growth of so-called cités sauvages, whose uncontrolled spread around the edges of major cities follows no principle of urban planning, but is rather a direct result of socioeconomic conditions. Whether it is a slum in India or a Favela in Brazil, Polidori is always fascinated by such cities, which “spring up suddenly and disappear again after 50 years. They are temporary structures that grow up out of necessity.”

Robert Polidori: 60-Foot Road, Dharavi, Mumbai, 2008
32.3″ x 354.3″ (yes, that’s right: 29.5 feet !!!) UV cured ink on aluminum

Robert Polidori: Dharavi # 1, Mumbai, 2008
58″ x 107.4″ UV cured ink on aluminum

Robert Polidori: Galerie Karsten Greve, September, 2014

Robert Polidori: Galerie Karsten Greve, September, 2014

Tags: Film Processing, Galerie Karsten Greve, Robert Polidori

La Town
Cao Fei
Lombard Freid Projects
September 10 – October 25

Cao Fei returns for her fifth exhibition at Lombard Freid Projects — this time premiering the 43 minute film, La Town. Projected onto a 9′ x 15′ screen, which dominates the main space of the gallery, La Town drags the viewer on a journey through fantastically film-noir stylized version of contemporary China gone very, very wrong.

Cao Fei: La Town, 2014
9′ x 15′ projection screen / Lombard Freid Projects

In Cao Fei’s words:

At a place called the Night Museum”, open only after dusk, various artifacts about “darkness” are on display. There is the American horror film: “30 days of Night”, Chinese artist Chu Yun’s installation “Constellation” and surprisingly, there is even an iPad app game for “The Godfather”. The current exhibition is about La Town.

Everyone has heard the myth of La Town. The story first appeared in Europe but after traveling through a space-time wormhole, reappeared in Asia and Southeast Asia. It was last seen near the ocean bordering the Eurasian tectonic plate, vanishing in its midst as if a mirage.

La Town, struck by unknown disaster – where without sunlight, time froze. Polar night was all encompassing so the few instances of white nights have been momentously recorded in the town’s history. Yet, through the drifting of time and space, various countries have rewritten La Town’s history — and details have been neglected. Now, the story of the small towns past — love affairs, politics, life, demons and disasters — have all been sealed beneath the museums vitrines, the historical “specimens” becoming an authoritative but limited interpretation of this town’s history.

The exhibition continues in the back room with five large dibond mounted digital-c print still images from the film (this is our part!).

Cao Fei: La Town
Digital-c print, dibond

This is our third exhibition with Cao Fei at Lombard Freid Projects — her previous show Playtime can be seen here.

Tags: Cao Fei, Digital-C Printing, Exhibitions, Lombard-Freid Projects, Mounting

We produced an exhibition for The Morrison Hotel Gallery from the archives of music photographer, David Gahr, in 2012. Around that same time the United States Postal Service issued 23 million “Forever” stamps of Miles Davis using one of Gahr’s images. This was their biggest run of a single celebrity stamp … ever!

That’s not just a rare occurrence … it’s also pretty damn cool if you think about it.

So fast forward to August 2014 and low-and-behold: the USPS has done it again! Only this time they’ve issued 60 million stamps using Gahr’s image of Janis Joplin … that’s nearly unbelievable, really.

Here’s what the USPS had to say about both issues:

Miles Davis:

Miles Davis was at the forefront of jazz musicians for decades, setting trends and exploring musical styles from bebop through cool jazz, fusion and funk. His restless musical exploration made him a hero to jazz lovers throughout the world. Among his many influential recordings areBirth of the Cool, Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, and In a Silent Way. He was also a great bandleader, and many important musicians rose to prominence in his bands, including saxophonists John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter; drummers Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette; and pianists Bill Evans, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock.

The Miles Davis family commented: “It is an extremely high honor to have the legacy of Miles Dewey Davis recognized with a commemorative stamp. We thank the U.S. Postal Service, along with all of the fans and well-wishers worldwide, who voiced their support for this initiative.”

Janis Joplin:

The artwork for this stamp features a photo of Janis Joplin taken by David Gahr in June 1970. The original black and white photograph is rendered in shades of blue, with Joplin’s trademark round sunglasses tinted a shade of pink. With her wild mane of hair decorated with a feathered accessory, wrists decked out in bangle bracelets, and expressive smile, it’s a joyful image of this iconic singer. The words “Janis Joplin,” along with the “Forever” denomination and “USA” appear in psychedelic-style script reminiscent of the 1960s, in shades of gold, orange, and pink. Daniel Pelavin designed the lettering. Small blue stars pop out from the stamp’s dark blue background. Text below the stamps briefly describes Joplin’s musical legacy.

The stamp sheet is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the sheet includes the stamps and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. A photograph taken by Bruce Steinberg in May 1968 at the First International San Jose Pop Festival, and the logo for the Music Icons series appear on the reverse side, along with the words “Janis Joplin Blues Rock Country Soul Folk.”

You can say a lot of things about the post office … but one thing is for sure, you have no excuse for using boring looking stamps on your envelopes and packages ever again!

Tags: David Gahr

Kids In Love
Olivia Bee
agnès b. Galerie Boutique 50 Howard NYC
June 20 – July 26

By all accounts, Olivia Bee’s opening of Kids In Love at the agnes b. galerie boutique on Howard street was a rousing success.

Bee’s printed images transcended their intimate boundaries easily transforming into a mega-sized presentation that wasn’t even remotely overshadowed by the free posters and t-shirts — or the fervent social-sharing sea of twenty-somethings that eventually overflowed onto the street

Tags: Digital-C Printing, Exhibitions, Mounting, Olivia Bee, Retouching

Kids In Love
Olivia Bee
agnès b galerie boutique, New York
June 20 – July 26

Olivia Bee: from Kids In Love
L: 4th of July (The Family You Choose), 2013
R: top – Running Away Lightly / Magic Hour, 2012
R: bottom – Bad Day, 2013

There’s a lot being said about Olivia Bee’s Kids In Love photographs and her exhibition at the agnès g galerie boutique — a quick google search will pull up about 3,270,00 results in 0.43 seconds — so I’m going to keep it brief here.

We had a great time producing this show.

Olivia is super-nice and easy to work with.

If you need to know more, check our other posts here or ask google  — the best stuff comes from her and she’s quoted, like, everywhere.

Olivia Bee: from Kids In Love
top: Untitled, 2010
middle left: Max Jumped Off a Train, 2012
middle right: Pre-Kiss, 2010
bottom: Fingertips, 2010

Tags: Digital-C Printing, Exhibitions, Mounting, Olivia Bee, Retouching, Scanning

Kids In Love
Olivia Bee

The first three weeks of June here were all about getting Olivia Bee’s Kids In Love exhibition ready for a June 20th opening at the agnès b. Galerie Boutique in Soho.

One one hand — three weeks to image 28 prints isn’t the tightest print deadline we’ve ever worked under (by far) — but considering that we had to produce first-time-ever seen hi-res scans and prints and brace mounting to .080 aluminum and delivery in three weeks — well, lets just say we found ourselves working rather quickly!

As is often the case, these things start out on the small side …

but then the proofing quickly escalates in complexity (and volume)

 Until eventually — over the course of a week or two —  the full size prints begin to appear.

Tags: Digital-C Printing, Olivia Bee, Retouching, Scanning