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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Sara Jane Boyers Photo_Winter Update 2014

The Fall consisted of several deadlines, two museum openings for exhibitions that contained work from me and two important visits as I returned to my DETROIT: DEFINTION project.  A good season.

Here is my Winter Update (also available at http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=013a28d9f024038bd399086bb&id=9f767c8688&e=0351ba6630)


Winter Update 2014

A bit close to the holidays but I did want to share several exciting upcoming events already in place for 2015 as well as good news since my Spring report on the Leica Gallery/Los Angeles opening of my GRIDLOCK project.

New Bio-Engineering Building, Wayne State University, Detroit November 2014

 

FIRST: Looking Ahead to 2015!
 
SarahLeePROJECTS@PhotoLA
 Friday, 16 January through Sunday, 18 January
Opening Night Gala 15 January
sarahleeprojects.blogspot.com

Along with Los Angeles-based photographers Aline Smithson, Ann Mitchell and Martin Cox, I will be showing work from my continuing REVISIT.RENEW.NEW fine art architectural project that emphasizes line, form and detail in the living space.




 
WATER TO PAPER: PAINT TO SKY @MOCA_NYC
March 2014
Museum of Chinese in America, New York
www.mocanyc.org


The retrospective of now 104 year-old artist, TYRUS WONG, is traveling from its 2013 opening at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco to NYC's Museum of Chinese In America, a recent building designed by artist/designer Maya Lin, the creator of the elegant and poignant Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in DC.

A beautifully compiled exhibition on such a talented artist and lovely man, the section of the exhibition with my photographic "story" of Tyrus and friends flying his hand-made kites at the beach was a hit in SF and will be included in the NYC retrospective as will be the elegant exhibition catalog that features a centerfold of my kite photographs.   My little book GO FLY A KITE: SATURDAYS AT THE BEACH WITH TYRUS WONG will also be there.  It can be previewed on issuu at http://issuu.com/sarajaneboyersphoto/docs/sjboyers_goflyakite_1

Below: Tyrus at his 104th (!) birthday kite-fly this past October!


 


Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles
Metropolis Books/Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P)
Launching at ParisPhotoLA 2015
 

metropolisbooks.com/books/forthcoming-titles/

Two photographs from my GRIDLOCK project will be published in Metropolis Books/DAP's new book, Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles, the sequel to the acclaimed and sold out Looking at Los Angeles (Metropolis Books 2005). The editorial contributors are amazing; the list of photographers is stellar and I am so honored to be included!  Look for it in Paris Photo's ever crowded D.A.P booth in early May!

 




SECOND: News From SUMMER, FALL, WINTER 2014

update: GRIDLOCK  @ LEICA GALLERY LOS ANGELES
The exhibit is over but there is nothing better than a great interviewer, even post-show, who makes you feel comfortable and asks intelligent, provocative questions. Ibarionex Perello made me sound so good and in so doing, helped me also understand better what in fact I am doing.  So honored as well to be among the photographers he has chosen to speak with! The interview is available on The Candid Frame  (#238)

The limited edition set of boxed prints, Gridlock: Tire & Tread is still at the Leica Gallery/LA, as is a framed photograph from the show, hanging in their VIP viewing room!

 
POWERHOUSE  ASMP_LA@MOPLA
 
ASMP/LA, of which I am an Architectural & Fine Art specialty member, included some of my GRIDLOCK imagery in a slide show of their "favourite female photographers," which was projected at the Month of Photography Los Angeles (MOPLA) closing event in late April at Boulevard 3 in Hollywood.
 

Asian and Pacific Islander Calendar and Cultural Guide
Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
 
Honored that again, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs has included two of my photographs of the Los Angeles downtown Chinatown from my FINDING CHINATOWN project in their 2014 Asian And Pacific Islander Cultural Heritage and Calendar.


 
CHINESE AMERICAN: EXCLUSION/INCLUSION
@ The New York Historical Society
September 26, 2014 - April 19, 2015
 
 The New York Historical Society is exhibiting THREE of my photographs for their new exhibition, CHINESE AMERICAN: EXCLUSION/INCLUSION, two on the introductory panel to their closing section on contemporary Chinese-Americans and the third in their exhibition video.





NO FIXED ADDRESS @ The Leonardo, Salt Lake City
November 6, 2014 - Spring 2015
For their new exhibition, NO FIXED ADDRESS: THE FACE OF AMERICA'S HOMELESS, The Leonardo, Salt Lake City's terrific new museum about exploration and seeing, commissioned me to photograph the iconic Santa Barbara Moreton Bay Fig Tree, symbolic in terms of the rights of those without an address.  My photograph was printed at a grand 5' x 9'!



 

METRO ARTISTS "CURATORS SELECTION"
 

Extremely excited that I have been included in the "Curators Selection" of the Call for Artists for the LA County METRO (1200+ applied). While not yet a commission, the Curators Committee consisted of reps from the Getty, the Broad, Hammer, LACMA and MOCA so it was indeed an honor to make their selection. Let's hope I can participate in a project commission (I am on the "list" for the next three years).
 
 

THIRD: PROJECTS CONTINUING/UPDATES 

DETROIT:DEFINTION

With great joy this Fall I was able to resume my long-term project photographing in my birth city, Detroit.

I visited there two times, the first: to attend the DETROIT HOMECOMING, an ingenious project that invited a group of "expats" back to the city for an intensive set of days with speakers, tours and information about what is happening now in Detroit.  And happening it is, the fast re-growth so apparent even from my last - Summer 2013 - visit.  I have been chronicling this on my Detroit Definition Blogspot with lots of photographs.

I returned again for almost a week in mid-November, photographing primarily. Busy with deadlines and a wealth of subject matter and images captured, not all of that trip is yet downloaded and thus not yet on the blogspot.  Suffice to say that each visit brings new encounters, new hope as I see neighborhoods cleaning themselves up, commercial streets reviving not only in downtown, and new buildings (the Wayne State Bio-Engineering Building with which I started this update) and businesses.  Detroit's bankruptcy resolved the day I flew in.  I am meeting residents with the fortitude to carry on in a city still in flux but with increasing faith in innovation, re-invention and community as progress continues, not without some barriers, but continue it does.

The beauty of the fall, combined with Detroit's first day of snow while I was there only contributed to the magic of this city.


 


Maya Angelou 1928 - 2014

Last, I wish to note this year's passing of Dr. Maya Angelou. A great American; a great African-American woman whose brave poem, combined the expressive art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, jump-started my writing career.

I had the infinite pleasure of working with Dr. Angelou and her office for the very first book that I created/edited, LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, where I paired her 1978 eponymous poem with Basquiat's powerful imagery for an illustrated book for youth on contemporary art & poetry.  LIFE still stands strong over 20+ years later.

In 2013 I received a surprise call from Dr. Angelou who asked if I would like to do another book with her.  So excited, I had planned to get to it this year.  I made a mistake, thinking that such a strong, creative individual who gave so much would live forever.  Her words still do.