The Photography Post : A New Photo Aggregation Site

Hey fellow art-lovers and trollers of the interwebs; Do I have a treat for you! Launched not but 2 days ago, The Photography Post is a pretty amazing little site that brings users all of the latest and most interesting photographic projects from across the internet onto one site! TPP doesn't discriminate between solid new source or causal side blog; all they are looking to do it find the pulse of photography on the world wide wed. It's REALLY cool. So far it's turned me on to a ton of interesting sites I had no idea existed before, like Ads of the World, which showcases some of the weirdest and most visually striking ads that we in America would never get to see.

Thanks, internet!

Color Me Katie : Shadow Art

Have you ever wondered if you shadow has been playing tricks on you while your back is turned?

The adorable freelance photographer, Katie Sokoler explored this lovely little issue over at her blog, Color Me Katie, and reveals how she created this fun and entertaining art. Remember those thought bubbles popping up all over Brooklyn a few months ago?



Yup, that was Katie, too! I adore this lady, and how she tries to brighten every single day she lives in, and how my borough of Brooklyn is now even more interesting than it was before :) What's her next project? Who knows, she seems to have a new one everyday!

Department of Eagles, MoMA video "No One Does It Like You"

The Department of Eagles screened their new music video for their song, No One Does It Like You, at MoMA on March 24th 2008, produced by the Directors Bureau, directed by Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, and featuring costumes and sets designed by Dzama, and it is LOVELY in all it's simplicity. I love that MoMA has the balls to acknowledge the modern day music videos can be held up as art, because music IS art, and the bands/songs I gravitate towards seem even more enticing when they embody the ideals of the modern (and post-modern) era as much as a painting, or sculpture, or photograph ever could. And honestly, this video is pure art to me. It seems to elude back to the first incarnation of film, or early stop-animation, and even the art of surrealism, like Bunuel or Fritz Lang, yet it still plays with me and makes me smile. In total, very, very smart and well done. Really, really wonderful.

Want to know more about Department of Eagles?
Website
MySpace
SxSW Coverage @ BV

I would like to know where they got their name from...

'Anti-Oxidant' Video Salon @ Northeast Kingdom

Marissa Nadler - Famous Blue Raincoat from Greg Eggebeen on Vimeo.

In my little corner of Bushwick, we have this wonderful restaurant called Northeast Kingdom, and for awhile now, it was the only reason that young, hip adults of Brooklyn to venture over to the Jefferson stop on the L. Like a little bubble in this otherwise fairly non-gentrified neighborhood, Northeast Kingdom serves a variety of exquisitely produced comfort foods, all compiled from local and organic farms. They also have lovely beers on tap (like Allagash, a personal favorite for the summer). It takes all of 3 minutes to settle into Northeast Kingdom and feel like you are in a wooden lodge somewhere far away from Brooklyn, eating food cooked by your cheek-pinching grandmother as you converse with long-lost friends.

So, how does this relate to Greg Eggebeen's video done to Marissa Nadler's cover of Famous Blue Raincoat? Well, according to BushwickBK (my fav Bushwick website), Northeast Kingdom hosts (randomly, really) an event called the 'Anti-Oxidant' video salon, and it has only been getting better and better. The event has really taken shape since local artist Christina Medina has taken over, and this weeks videos were all centered around local music (hence Marissa Nadler!) Man, oh man, if Eggebeen's video is any representation of the caliber of art being show at these events, I will NOT miss the next one on February 11th. It's beautiful, flowing and haunting yet still lovingly nostalgic. Eggebeen did an amazing job of capturing the subtle emotions at play behind Nadler's cover.

Other videos/artists showcased that night:
Opening video by Fritz Donnely.
Drew and the Medicinal Pens (who performed live afterwards!)
Matthew Dunehoo (formally of Baby Teardrops)
A/D
Ryan Power of Burlington, Vermont
Worm

What's Lizzie Linking to in Brooklyn?

a bright day in brooklyn, originally created by 6161810

Curbed.com reports on the controversial Walentas Dock Street project, which got its first okay yesterday with a 30-7 vote. Bye-bye beautiful Brooklyn Bridge view if this goes through!

I'm extremely excited about the Brooklyn Flea Winter Antique Market that has opened in DUMBO! Located in the ground floor store at the corner of Front and Washington street, the market will be open for 12 weekends (starting last weekend).

BushwickBK reports on what REALLY makes a vintage store cool (i.e. - clueless-ness!)

If you have not see Fifty People, One Question yet, please please do. Happy, sad, bittersweet and uplifting, fifty Brooklynites were asked the question, "Where would you like to wake up tomorrow?"

Head over to NYTimes.com for their new section titled One in 8 Million that will explore a unique story from a different New Yorker each week. It's GORGEOUS. Finally, the NY Times is using this medium in the right way with wonderful photography and crisp audio recordings. Sensationally satisfying!!

My wonderful father, founder and owner of the Brooklyn Stained Glass Conservation Center, was featured in an article in the Brooklyn Eagle for his wonderful craftsmanship in reconstructing the 7 stained glass windows that were blown out of the Bay Ridge church on August 8, 2007. Remember that terrible storm that flooded all of the subways lines? Yup, that's the one. which also created Brooklyn's first recorded tornado that touched down in Bay Ridge and subsequently destroyed all 7 windows in the church. Work from a single digital image taken some time in the mid 90s, my father recreated the windows (including a 23 foot chancellor window) from scratch, using only his own artistic skills to get the job done.

Ciao Ciao!

Magazines and the Dodo?

dirty magazine, originally created by www.elliebrown.com.

I found out today that one of my friends was let go from her job as an Associate Photo Editor. Such a bummer. It's just about the hardest thing in the world to be an artist during an economic recession, because alot of what artists create are luxury items and not essential to life (you don't REALLY need to commission that panting of your dog to survive, do you?), so a good amount of really talented artists are pushed under the table during this time.

Searching around the internet to see just HOW bad the artistic employment opportunity was right now, I came across this list of the Top 9 Predictions for 2009 from Ed2010.com, a site started by two young women who simply aspired to be Editors of magazines by 2010. Actually, I wonder how they are doing... The list revolves around where print and online publications will be headed in 2009 (unfortunately, some are oh so close to seeing the Dodo).

http://www.ed2010.com/2009/01/9-predictions-2009

These are simply written by someone in the business, who has been around the block a time or two, and I think they hold greatly true to the times.

What artists are NOT being hurt by the economic recession? I'd say MUSICIANS, most definitely. Everyone loves a wonderful melody, and it's very voyeuristic (meditative, even). We are allowed take a moment away from the stresses of life and believe in love and life again (or, atleast that's how the music I listen to makes me feel :) Who else? Thank god the internet, the medium in which I work now a-days. We're just rolling along because, guess what, it's free!!!

The Sweet Science

In response to the assault I went through in 2006, I found a home at Gleason's Boxing Gym in DUMBO Brooklyn, and in the power everyone seemed to exude from knowing how to defend themselves. I never took any formal lessons, but the environment of the old, eclectic gym and the comradery of the trainers, boxers, and spectators who were both very old and new to the sport intrigued me and drew me in like a warm blanket. I based my Senior Thesis Photo Essay around this gym and the objects that inhabited it. I loved the idea of doing still life studies of simply the things that made the gym what it was, and not just the people. (The essay, titled "The Sweet Science" is on my website).

So, I found it ironic today that, when dealing with my friend's recent assault (see post below), I came across a very interesting photo essay on boxing by Nicolai Howalt, where he compares shots of young boxers before and after a fight. I particularly love the one posted above because there are such subtle changes in his exterior; you almost have to look at it again and again to catch everything. Very fascinating.

DUMBO and 12th Annual Arts Under the Bridge Festival

DUMBO, Brooklyn will always hold a dear place in my heart, but I'm torn between loving it's history and hating it's present. This neighborhood and I grew up together, changed together, and really, now resembles nothing of the DUMBO I once new (besides that the art has still managed to hang around, though not entirely in the same way). When I was 15 years old, my father moved his Stained Glass Conservation Studio down to DUMBO and joined the army of Artisans who were making the community diverse, artistic, kooky and passionate. This was the time of DUMBO when a young, white female such as myself could not walk around alone for fear of being mugged, when the York St. stop was virtually deserved (and you most certainly didn't venture down to that forlorn end of the platform where the garbage and rats roamed), and Superfine was still a little kitchen in the back of a bar called Between the Bridges (which used to reside where the new, cookie-cutter building @ 63 York St. sits). Despite the grunge and the mess and the chaos of a neighborhood still under no control or rules, it was wonderful because within all of that, there were genuine people, who could hold a great conversation and care about what you thought, and really cool bars/restaurants that no one knew about yet that one could call their own.

Fast forward 7 years, and here we are, where DUMBO has turned into a stroller/hipster haven, with prices soaring, local artisans virtually gone, and huge festivals during the weekend, where the streets become so jam packed, I wonder how anyone can breath. It's not BAD, purse; I still hang out down there with my father (who's studio still exists in 'new and improved' 55 Washington St.) and there are still a couple of people we recognize in the bars, or at the pool tables...on the streets. It's just a completely different vibe now. It's HIP, and that explains it all. A neighborhood where once no one but the roughest, gruffest men would enter (and perhaps their daughters who could be shielded under their wings), now houses families with babies, hipsters with cash, and the artists who are wealthy from their fame in Chelsea. It's a renovation of DUMBO, not a revolution like some have suggested.

Should it change? Well, it can't. That's the thing, isn't it? These neighborhoods in NYC and Brooklyn, that were once unique and specific, artistic...genuine, turn into upper class playgrounds, where the rich can feel bohemian. Gentrification hit DUMBO like a tsunami; and the receding wave left many confused, shaken and really lost. Those that survived and stayed behind (like my father) feel more and more out of place each day, and are simply waiting out their leases before they can leave. It's sad, though we make the best of it and still hang at the bars, play on the pool tables and take in the beautiful skyline view. We remind ourselves that somewhere out there is another DUMBO just waiting for us to discover, and make our own all over again.

ANYWAYS. Again, despite all of this, I would be amiss to not mention the arts festival DUMBO is holding this weekend, Arts Under the Bridge Festival. This festival has been around for almost as long as I have (in DUMBO), so I still hold respect for it (and occasionally, I'll find I have a college friend trying to make his/her way in the world hold a show during this time whom I wish to support). It looks like it will be a good one, as there are so many political ideas floating around everyone's minds. Who knows what might come out of this...?

Interested in Old-School DUMBO? Please go to my website at www.elizabethfraserphoto.com, go under projects and then to Artisans in DUMBO. This is circa 2003 DUMBO, freshman year photography.

ENJOY!

ps- the image of Tom Bogaert's installation during the 2007 Arts Under the Bridge Festival, titled Piso Majado Por Dumbo.