Trent Parke’s epic and personal body of work The Black Rose premiered to great acclaim at the Art Gallery of South Australia in March 2015. Created over seven years, the series explores universal themes – birth, death, love, loss, memory and the passing of time. It started out as a conversation with some of his fellow Magnum members on the concept of Home. Parke was inspired to understand his own story and to excavate his own histories, which had become buried under day-to-day life for many years. Despite the very personal nature of his investigation, Parke’s work reflects more broadly on our attempts to make sense of personal stories, dreams and chance. Stills Gallery is delighted to be able to present a selection of works from this significant series.

Parke is a storyteller who makes art out of everyday occurrences. His responses to daily life are raw, fast and intuitive. His understanding of the photographic medium is profound – whether it’s the nature of light and how it is rendered on film, the ability to anticipate an action before it occurs and be ready to capture it, or the recognition of the narrative and emotional potentials and of an image or group of images. In The Black Rose at AGSA Parke also included stories, diary entries and video works. Much like Life, the exhibition unfolded over time and space – revealing itself over a number of rooms, each with a particular theme, the universe, home, death etc., the viewer drawn to make their own connections between the images – the stark white face of a child, the dust strewn back of an ornate mirror, ants devouring a black butterfly. Each image builds upon another and the eye becomes alive to details and visual echoes.

Exhibition runs: October 7 – 14 November, 2015

Stills Gallery
36 Gosbell Street
Paddington NSW 2021
Australia

Hat Tip

Hat Tip

Go behind the scenes at the SS15 Fantasie Swim photoshoot. See more at www.fantasie.com

In Theaters March 27th, 2015. Directed by Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Will McBride rose to fame in the 1950s and ’60s as a pre-eminent documentary photographer. His photo essays appeared regularly in various German magazines and became an important a chronicle of the Kennedy and Adenauer years. With the sexual revolution in full swing, McBride’s work includes sex, nudity, drugs and politics and has experienced censorship. He was as well a painter and sculptor.
jack crowley with dove
© will mcbride

tana and victor , 1965 for the german magazine TWEN
© will mcbride

His last exhibition, which run in the Photogallery c/o of the Amerikahaus until January 18th, was entitled ‘ich war verliebt in diese stadt’ / ‘I was in love with this city’ and showed the life that is between the post-WWII Berlin city ruins that still moves forward despite the disabling nature of war. as an outsider and young beatnik he slowly became part of the city and its inhabitants, observing their activities with his leica at close range – non-conformist and without conventions. It is in particular this radical subjectivity that led to the unique authenticity of his pictures – this is the closest a photographer can get to an object, the deepest he can immerse himself in a situation. with this directness of a ‘personal documentary’ style, Will McBride was an early forerunner of artists such as Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans.

John F. Kennedy, Willy Brandt, Konrad Adenauer in front of the Brandenburg gate, 1963
© Will McBride

Strandbad Wannsee, 1959
© Will McBride

McBride has done ‘lexicon der sexualität’ / ‘the sex book’ in 1970, created in collaboration with Martin Goldstein, a psychoanalyst, who gave lectures in high schools and collected questions about sex. the book was an answer to the questions, a facts-of-life book purported to offer readers ‘the first fully modern, completely informative, and pictorially honest encyclopedia on sex…it is modern because it looks upon sex and the human body as natural and beautiful.‘

The publication was followed in 1975 by another sex education book titled ‘zeig mal’ /’show me‘.  Realizing that sex education should begin earlier than the teens, McBride worked on this publication with psychologist Helga Fleichhauer-Hardt for children and their parents. it was highly controversial, sold over a million copies, but was withdrawn from publication in the US.

excerpt of book ‘show me’ / english text
© Will McBride

excerpt of book ‘show me’ – german text says: I’m a little afraid to remain alone
© Will McBride

A third book with this topic was released in 1989, ‘zeig mal mehr!’ / ‘please show more’.  Aids made the sexual problem more difficult. It was no longer enough to tell young people to get closer. The use of condoms is shown in this book, as well as different sexual lifestyles including gay and lesbian relationships. Another new book was planned to go into sex and maturity and old age, also sex and aggression…

‘study of mathias’, 1970
© Will McBride

Andy Warhol in New York, 1970
© Will McBride

Will McBride
Was born in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in Chicago. He was trained as a painter by Norman Rockwell and went on to study drawing and painting at Syracuse University, where he graduated in 1953. From 1953 to 1955 he served in the U.S. Army at Würzburg, Germany, and would remain in Germany until his death.

Chicago-based trashhand is a self-taught photographer who strives to showcase urban areas in unique ways through the lens of his iPhone or DSLR. Though he only started shooting in late 2011, trashhand has amassed an immense following of over 290K on Instagram with his work being featured by the likes of the Huffington Post, Nike, and countless fashion labels. Check out more at trashhand.com.

What makes someone stand out? Is it their talent, their perseverance, or their knack for being at the right place at the right time? Perhaps, it’s a culmination of all three – a formula for success that only a select few, are fortunate enough to piece together. This is one such story. This is the story of Jerry Buttles, a New York-based photographer, who at twenty-seven, appears to have figured out his very own formula. This is the story of a journey, and how moments, memories, and the things we cherish most, can change everything.

>>Read More Here

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