Jen Bekman Gallery blog

Bonus! One More Day for ANAP

A New American Portrait installation view
courtesy of Joe Holmes

Those of you hoping to catch the final stretch of A New American Portrait will be happy to hear that the show will stay up one extra day!

Tomorrow, the gallery will be open from noon to 6 - your last chance to see, all together, the wonderful photographs of Christine Collins, Jen Davis, Benjamin Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Peter Haakon Thompson, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei.

Spc. Tyson Johnson, 22, wounded in a mortar attack on Abu Ghraib prison
by Nina Berman

Catch the last day of ANAP and then stop by again on Wednesday, August 8 at 6pm, as the gallery will reopen with a reception for Purple Hearts, photographs by Nina Berman.

Mark your calendars, the New York Times says so!

ANAP Required Reading (Pt. 2)

Image currently on view at jen bekman thru August 3
© Todd Hido

Jörg Colberg, co-curator of the A New American Portrait exhibition, writes one of the internet's most widely read blogs on photography. Jörg's blog, Conscientious, considers the scope of contemporary photography, some current photo-related news, and acts as a hub for many of the other photography blogs online. Somehow, Jörg also manages to find the time to interview interesting photographers, one of my favorite parts of his blog. He then shares these interviews in a category he's labeled "Conversations."

Over the course of time that he has been conducting these interviews, Jörg has actually spoken with many of the ANAP artists: Amy Elkins, Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Alec Soth (again), Brian Ulrich, and Shen Wei.

Take some time to read through all the conversations, learn more about the photographers and see what each of them have to say about their own work.

ANAP: Opening Pix

Co-curator Jörg Colberg: tall, lanky, German. Check out the ANAP Opening Reception Set on Flickr.

Friday night's opening for A New American Portrait lived up to all the hype. It was one of the funnest openings we've ever hosted and it went so smoothly which was a relief. As you might know from pictures or in person, the gallery is tiny and the pre-show buzz was huge. Packed openings are fun and all, but can be anxiety provoking - I worry about pictures being knocked askew and cops issuing open container summonses (when the festivities inevitably spill out on to Spring St.) and about running out of booze. A million little things! It's often hard for me to relax and have a good time. There were a few tense moments on Friday, but generally speaking I had a blast. The show looks gorgeous, all but two of the artists were in attendance and the weather was stunningly perfect.

I put up a set of opening night photos compliments of the ever-excellent Joe Holmes.

It was a really special night - I'm grateful to the jb intern crew for being totally on top of stuff and allowing me to relax and have a good time. (Not to mention the fact that most of them stayed behind to clean up so I could go on to the closing party at Silverstein for the even better in person than on her blog Zoe Strauss and her totally kick-ass show.) It was wonderful to have Christine Collins, Ben Donaldson, Amy Elkins, Alec Soth, Peter Haakon Thompson, Brian Ulrich and Shen Wei come from near and far to be there for the opening. And of course, I cannot even begin to tell you how great it's been working with Jörg, my collaborator and my friend, who is seriously terrific and smart and wonderful. I wish he and his lovely wife Karen Tozzi lived here in NYC - then we could meet for breakfast at Veselka all the time!

Thanks to everyone who made it out, and I hope to see many more of you between now and when the show closes on August 3rd. We might even throw another event into the mix between now and then. Watch this space for more on ANAP, it's artists and etc - we'll continue to update the blog with juicy tidbits for the duration of the show.