Announcing the 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize Winner and Runners-Up

All of us at Aperture Foundation would like to thank everyone who submitted work to the 2009 Aperture Portfolio Prize. This year, Aperture’s editorial and limited-edition print departments—four staff members and three work scholars in all—reviewed over seven hundred portfolios. Our challenge was to select one top prize and five honorable mentions from this overwhelming response. Thus, we are pleased to present Alexander Gronsky’s The Edge/Pastoral as this year’s winner. Congratulations also to Keliy Anderson-Staley, Off the Grid; Alejandro Cartagena, Lost Rivers; Maureen Drennan, Meet Me in the Green Glen; Jason Hanasik, He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore; and Mark Lyon, Landscapes for the People. more info here

critical mass 2009 book finalists

CM09: Our Book Award Finalists!
Congratulations to our Book Award Finalists!


Jody Ake

Carl Bower

Alejandro Cartagena

Toni Greaves

Birthe Piontek

Christopher Sims



Each of these artists will be asked to submit a proposal and from those, two books will be selected for publication by photolucida. Once those books are published, they'll be sent to each and every person involved with Critical Mass 2009. Well done! Thanks to all!

in photolucida top 50, 2009

Jenn Ackerman
Jody Ake
Leslie Alsheimer
Jane Fulton Alt
Carl Bower
Andrea Camuto
Manuel Capurso
Alejandro Cartagena
Pelle Cass
Edmund Clark
Victor Cobo
Caleb Cole
Scott Dalton
Dorothee Deiss
Mitch Dobrowner
Jade Doskow
Ed Freeman
Lucia Ganieva
Judy Gelles
N W Gibbons
Toni Greaves
Alexander Gronsky
Jessica Todd Harper
Jessica Ingram
Samar Jodha
Mary Shannon Johnstone
Jimmy Lam
Laurie Lambrecht
David Leventi
Larry Louie
Benjamin Lowy
Simone Lueck
David Maisel
Sarah Malakoff
Rania Matar
Tim Matsui
Mark Menjivar
Brad Moore
Kate Orne
Ara Oshagan
Rachel Papo
Bradley Peters
Alexis Pike
Birthe Piontek
Ellen Rennard
Betsy Schneider
Peter Sibbald
Christopher Sims
David Taylor
Phillip Toledano
Will Steacy
Serkan Taycan

more info here

ricardo martinez roa y fernando gomez: maquetas y miradas, curaduria de domingo valdivieso y alejandro cartagena

international discoveries II

wow manuel vazquez

some beautiful images. the digital used magnificently. manuel´s page here.

bieke depoorter

i really enjoy the embrace of the digital glitches in biekes´ images. it is an open embrace of the limits of photography used to produce an almost painterly representation of the dramatic life of people from small villages in russia.



"For three periods of one month, I have let the Trans-Siberian train guide me alongside forgotten villages, from living room to living room. Some Russian words, scribbled on a little piece of paper, allowed me to be welcomed and absorbed in the warm chaos of a family. Accidental encounters led me to the places where I could sleep. The living room, the epicentre of their life, establishes an intimate contact between the Russian inhabitants".

sebastian friedman

sebastian friedman ganó la feria del libro de artistas de fotoseptiembre 2009. su trabajo segurismos es una representación del problema latinoamericano de inseguridad. mas información en su página.

for a good weekend: the felice brothers

am further north than south...

Gabriel Benaim

el artista panameño-israelita gabriel bernaim presenta una serie que titúla telaviv at 100 en la que presenta una ciudad llena de formas contrapuestas, especialmente por los puntos de vista y decisiones de composición que éste hace.







su uso del blanco y negro genera una abstracción que cae agradable a la vista, haciendonos espectadores activos. gabriel parte de la fotografía topográfica, pero en su busqueda formal hace que sus imágenes sean documentos contundentes y placenteros de ver.

algunas de las imágenes nos recuerdan a los trabajos de joe deal y lee freidlander, pero de manera renovada y aceptando el pasado histórico haciendo sus fotos aún más interesantes de observar.

lee friedlander:




joe deal:

you must be a masochist...

UNSEEN at Randall Scott Gallery, october 22, 2009

a great group of colleagues put together by curator ruben natal-san miguel. don't miss it! more info here



ruben: as an Art Collector, I address the challenge that most art lovers constantly face… the search of new art and the issues of acquiring work for small spaces. By using the salon style for this show I demonstrate different themes and techniques, presented in a very traditional manner, that work within a confined space. Space should not limit your desire for collecting…the sky is the limit!

100 fotografos contemporáneos en méxico

some images for the stunning distrito capital hotel

rafal milach

rafal milach won the blurb photography book now contest with this beautiful and dark body of work. he says:

"people have changed the landscape in a very brutal way here. But the sea fights back for its natural shape and territory. Local people seem to respect the power of the sea. Nevertheless at the same time they thoughtlessly devastate it. This wired symbiosis makes this piece of land fascinating. I went to the Ukrainian Black Sea coast to explore this mutual influence and relation between the man and sea".

look at the book here. his web page here.

fotofest international discoveries II

in houston next month? take an afternoon to visit this exhibition that will show a big selection of my suburbia mexican series. press release here

inaugura hoy en guate, las topografias guatemaltecas de juan jose estrada, no se la pierdan

mas informacion aqui.

luis díaz díaz

luis es un fotógrafo español que me ha compartido varios de sus proyectos que viene realizando desde varios años atrás. su trabajo es detallado y resuelto. pareciera que su búsqueda reside en encontrar un significado en las múltiples formas en como se presentan sus temas, logrando así despertar un interés de saber cual puede ser su conclusión sobre lo observado, o quizás es esa imposibilidad de una respuesta lo que nos quiere mostrar. para mí son en especial su trabajo de cajas de música y retratos los que cargan su estilo y búsqueda personal. una felicitacion por haber sido seleccionado para participar el próximo año en la 3ª bienal de fotografía y arquitectura de Bruselas!

opening of suburbia mexicana in foto 30 festival, guatemala

by josé mayorga

FIL Fotoseptiembre entrega premios

foto de mezli vega

La Feria Internacional del Libro de Artistas Fotoseptiembre 2009 reconoció la víspera a Sebastián Friedman con el premio en la categoría de Libro Objeto, y a Diego Levy y a Juan Antonio Sánchez Rull, en la de Libro (prototipo)... nota completa aqui

stella kalaw

stella kalaw uses color in subtle and coherent ways that make her images very quiet but evoking.

christian poveda in san luis potosi, mexico

La organización y los participantes del Tercer Encuentro de Fotografía en San Luis Potosí están profundamente impresionados por la noticia que nos llega desde El Salvador y dedican el encuentro al compañero Christian Poveda. Se realizarán homenajes en su nombre durante los próximos tres días.

Desde el Tercer Encuentro de Fotografía de México queremos hacer llegar nuestro cariño a familiares y amigos.

Christian estuvo impartiendo su primer taller a profesionales del día 24 al 29 de Agosto de 2009 en SLP.

Adjuntamos unas fotografías de Christian Poveda, realizadas por Abdel Meza, fotógrafo y alumno de Christian. Abdel cede libremente sus imágenes para la difusión. Más fotografías del taller en: http://www.facebook.com


Tercer Encuentro de Fotografía de México

Asesinan a Christián Poveda

photographer christian poveda was murdered today in san salvador. he was just in mexico last week giving a workshop at the encuentro fotografico slp 2009. i can't believe it.

simon roberts- we english

i had been following simon´s blog since the beginning of the year about his project we english which is just wonderful. having gone to a british school in D.R. i felt an attraction to the work in order to know where all my old teachers had come from, both culturally and physically. i have not made it over to britain yet, but i am happy to see it through simon´s good eyes. visit the gallery with all the images here and pre-order his book here or if in NYC go look at the show at klompching gallery. congrats to simon on this wonderful body of work!