CAPA VISA: Presentations by John Chiara and Lindsey Ross

CAPA VISA – Visual Insights and Stories from Abroad
Presentations by John Chiara and Lindsey Ross (visiting artists of the Budapest Art Factory International Artist Residency Program)

A Robert Capa Kortárs Fotográfiai Központ új programsorozatot indít: a  CAPA VISA keretében a szakmai vagy akár magáncélból Budapestre látogató külföldi szakemberek mutatkoznak be. A kortárs fotográfia meghatározó nemzetközi szereplői egy-egy alkalommal nyilvános előadások formájában ismertetik tevékenységüket, kutatási területüket, saját színterüket vagy tartanak portfólió konzultációt a Capa Központban. A rendezvénysorozat célja, hogy lehetőséget teremtsen a tudáscserére a nemzetközi fotós szcénában aktív fotográfusok, intézményvezetők, kurátorok, független szakemberek, szakírók, szerkesztők és a magyar szakemberek között. A CAPA VISA programok angol nyelven zajlanak.

Dátum: 2018. május 6., hétfő, 18 óra
Helyszín: Capa Központ, Stúdió
Az eseményen való részvétel ingyenes.
Az előadások angol nyelvűek.

The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center’s new program series CAPA VISA introduces leading foreign professionals in the field of contemporary photography – visiting Budapest for professional or private reasons – to present their activities, research areas, or hold portfolio consultations and workshops at the Capa Center. The aim of the program series is to create an opportunity for knowledge exchange between international and Hungarian photographers, heads of institutions, curators, independent professionals, writers, and editors.

On May 6, 2019, at 6pm, two prominent artists, John Chiara and Lindsey Ross – currently at residence in the Budapest Art Factory’s International Artist Residency Program – will provide an insight into their artistic practices, creative approaches. The presentations are in English. Please note that the artists will also hold a workshop at Budapest Art Factory at the end of May.

After dedicating an extended period to making contact prints from his 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 inch negatives, John Chiara decided that too much information was lost in the darkroom enlargement process. Over a period of six years, he developed his own equipment and processes to make first-generation unique photographs without using film, creating pieces that are part photography, part sculpture, and part event. In his presentation, Chiara will share his process from selecting the location through situating himself within his hand-build camera (the largest so far has been a 50″ x 80″ field camera) to maneuvering in near total darkness and using his hands to build and dodge the large-scale images.

Lindsey Ross is a Californian artist who uses vintage photographic processes to reimagine archetypes and phenomena of the American West.  For the last eight years she has concentrated on the 19th century process, wet plate collodion.  Most recently she has employed ultra large formats 50x61cm and 81x61cm for her work in the Western landscape.  Her residency with the Budapest Art Factory is her first experience working in Central Europe.  Ross will share her work and discuss why this medium is essential to her artistic practice.

Budapest Art Factory (BAF) is a contemporary visual arts center with several artistic studios, professional event series, and an exhibition program, founded by a group of professional Hungarian artists – Dóra Juhász, Márta Kucsora, and Sándor Szász – in 2006. Their International Artist Residency Program – launched in 2013 – welcomes established as well as up-and-coming young talents from all over the world for a one-month artistic practice.

Date: May 6, 2019, 6pm
Venue: Capa Center, Studio
The presentations are held in English and there is no admission fee.

Please note that the artists have upcoming openings in Budapest and are also planning a workshop at the end of May.

JOHN CHIARA

https://www.johnchiara.com/

//bio//

John Chiara received his BFA in Photography from the University of Utah in 1995, and his MFA in Photography from the California College of the Arts in 2004. He has been an artist in residence at Crown Point Press, San Francisco, in 2006 and in 2017; at Gallery Four, Baltimore in 2010, and at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts in 2010.  In 2011, Chiara’s Bridge Project was commissioned by the Pilara Foundation, San Francisco, and was included in the Pier 24 Photography group exhibition titled Here. In 2012 Chiara was one of thirteen international artists whose work was included in the exhibition Crown Point Press at Fifty at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C., and at the de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.  Chiara’s work was included in Twisted Sisters: Reimagining Urban Portraiture at the Museum Barengasse, Zurich, Switzerland, and in Staking Claim, a California triennial invitational at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Art. In 2015, Chiara was one of seven artists featured in Light, Paper, Process, Reinventing Photography, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In 2016, Chiara’s work was included in A Matter Of Memory: Photography As Object In The Digital Age at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y.

//lecture//

After dedicating an extended period in 1995 to making contact prints from his 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 inch negatives, John Chiara decided that too much information was lost in the darkroom enlargement process. Over the next six years, he developed his own equipment and processes to make first-generation unique photographs without using film.

Chiara developed a process that is part photography, part sculpture, and part event. It is an undertaking requiring invention in his tools and patience in using them. He creates one-of-a-kind photographs in a variety of hand-built cameras, the largest of which is a 50″ x 80″ field camera that he transports on a flatbed trailer. Once he selects a location, he situates, and then physically enters, the camera, and maneuvers in near total darkness a sheet of positive color photographic paper onto the camera’s back wall.  Throughout each exposure, his instinctive control limits the light entering the lens. He uses his hands to burn and dodge the large-scale images and develops them in a spinning drum by agitating the chemistry over photographic paper lining the interior of the drum. This process often leaves traces behind on the resulting images.

Chiara’s photographs are strongly perceptual, rendered in soft hues with a strong sense of the viscosity of material and the ephemerality of place.

LINDSEY ROSS

http://www.lindseyrossphoto.com/

//lecture//

Works of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Walter Benjamin for the digital era

In the 1930’s theorist Walter Benjamin wrote the iconic essay  “Works of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” proposing that art is devalued by mechanical reproduction.  In the essay Benjamin observed the changing role of art and emergence of mass media through photography and film.  The essay became even more prophetic through the 20th and into the 21st century as digital technology developed and influenced society.

The edited version of Benjamin’s essay “Works of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” was completed in 1939.  Eighty years later, I intend to unpack Benjamin’s essay in the context of 2019 amid current digital technology and cultural climate.

(This essay directly relates to the work that both John and I do since we both work with direct positive/originals.  So if it makes more sense to have this as more of a panel discussion with curator that would work for me).

BUDAPEST ART FACTORY (BAF)

BAF is a contemporary visual arts center, seated in a former industrial building in the capital of Hungary. Formed by several artistic studios and an exhibition program, BAF welcomes visitors all year round, providing a platform for the dialogue of contemporary art. BAF runs an International Artist Residency Program, and welcomes established artists as well as up-and-coming young talents for a one month artistic practice.

The center and its programs were initiated by a group of professional Hungarian artists – Dóra Juhász, Márta Kucsora and Sándor Szász – in 2006.

BAF International Artist Residency Program

BAF International Artist Residency Program was launched in 2013. Within the framework of the program BAF welcomes internationally recognized visual artists for a month of creative experience. The goal of the program is to explore and reflect upon the ideas, concepts introduced by the invited art professionals, to create a vivid arena for intellectual discourse. Workshops, lectures, exhibitions and other events are organized in order to bring forward a special theme that is culturally relevant.