MoCP Newsletter

May 16, 2007

THIRD ANNUAL GALA RAISES $70,000 FOR MoCP PROGRAMMING

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Barbara Probst, Exposure #40: NYC, 545 8th Avenue, 03.23.06, 1:42 PM, 2006

On April 13, 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography celebrated the opening of Barbara Probst: Exposures at Synched, our third annual gala.

The celebration, organized by the MoCP’s Museum Council, raised $70,000 in support of the museum’s programming.

We wish to thank our sponsors US Bank, Ogilvy, Christie’s, William Blair & Company, the Ross Family Foundation, Ungaretti & Harris, Blue Rooster Catering, Boeing, Acrobat Marketing Solutions, Inc., Stems, and Smithfield Properties for their support, along with each of the artists who donated work to our auction of internationally acclaimed photography.

Illinois Humanities Council Grant Supports Upcoming Exhibition at MoCP

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is proud to announce that it has received a grant of $5,000 from the Illinois Humanities Council to support educational outreach surrounding its upcoming Loaded Landscapes exhibition. On view August 16 through October 13, 2007, this exhibition focuses on contemporary landscape photography as it relates to human history. The photographs in this exhibition can be read in a broader context of documentary photography, which seeks to excavate politically charged places that are often concealed by the seductive beauty of the landscapes surrounding them.

Paul Shambroom, Police SWAT, Camouflage, 2005

The grant from the Illinois Humanities Council will support two exhibition-related discussions – one a public lecture in collaboration with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs featuring artist Simon Norfolk, and the other a panel discussion with local artists and professor Joel Snyder from the University of Chicago. The Museum of Contemporary Photography wishes to extend its appreciation to the Illinois Humanities Council for its generous support.

TEENAGERS REFLECT ON IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY IN NEW EXHIBITION AT MOCP

You’ve Ever Wondered by Erica Barban, Curie High School

Students in the acclaimed arts education programs at the Center for Community Arts Partnerships and Museum of Contemporary Photography construct public and private narratives through writing and photography

On May 31, 2007, the Center for Community Arts Partnerships (CCAP) and the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Columbia College Chicago, will open Talkin’ Back 4: Chicago Youth Respond, an annual exhibition of photography and creative writing that distills major subjects impacting our community into riveting personal reflections on identity.

Talkin’ Back began four years ago as a conversation about text and image among photographers and writers working in programs sponsored by the MoCP and CCAP. Today it continues as a partnership between CCAP’s nationally recognized arts integration program Project AIM (Arts Integration Mentorship) and the MoCP’s “Picture Me” program. Project AIM partners teaching artists with public school teachers in Chicago to create arts-integrated curriculum that promotes reading and writing through the arts. “Picture Me” teaches Chicago teens professional photography skills that enable them to examine their lives and communities, express themselves creatively, and further their career and academic goals.

Students, artists and educators will be present at the opening reception on May 31 from 5-7 pm to celebrate and answer questions about the work. Spoken word artists will perform throughout the evening. The exhibition runs through June 2.

AN INTERVIEW WITH TIM RODA

Tim Roda’s work casually travels within arenas of installation, photography, film and performance. A camera is used to record one moment in time that balances between memories and constructed commentaries, yet is a documentation of “real” events. His series Family Album is on view at MoCP through May 25. MoCP web administrator Audrey Michelle Mast conducted this interview with Mr. Roda via email in May 2007.

MoCP: You received both BFA and MFA degrees in ceramics. Does your recent work represent a departure from ceramics and/or sculpture? What is the relationship between photography and your background in ceramics–do you approach photography from a different perspective?

TR: I don’t think my work represents a departure from ceramics and sculpture. If anything, I would like to think of photography as an extension of my work and understanding in Art. I enjoy when mediums cross over. I feel that the gray area between the mediums is often where it can grow. Even though I love eating and drinking on handmade pottery versus something that is made at Target, there is still a manufacturing process that happens with that “kind” of Art. I think the same can be said for photography, painting, and many other Arts. I like to surround myself around visual artists who are pushing the boundaries of their mediums because I feel that they come up with the most unique perspectives.

TR: One thing that always bothered me in ceramics was a sense of immediacy in the process. Anybody that has seen me work in clay knows that I build things fairly quickly and like to push the boundaries of gravity. Many times I would work on something all day, then go home and eat dinner. While I was at home, someone would call me from the studio and say that my sculpture just fell off the table. I hated waiting for the clay to dry and then fire and glaze. Working with clay and then photographing it changed the perspective of how I could work with the material. It gave exceptions to every rule I was ever taught, which became a very important point in my perspective of working with all materials. If exception can be made for materials, then the focus can be on the subject. Whenever I worked in clay, I always heard people say that the way I worked and the work itself was visceral and raw. I often hear similar comments about my photographs.

MoCP: What is it like working with your family? Do you feel that there are collaborative aspects to this process, or are you “directing” a theatrical performance (or something else)?

TR: It is awesome to work with my family. So many times I have heard that artists that have inner conflicts and guilt because they need to make art, but also feel the pressure of spending time with their family. I do not feel guilty. My wife and son are a pleasure to work with. They are my biggest supporters. We have some great conversations before and after each shot. My favorite part is usually after the image is taken because my son dresses up in whatever he can find lying around and just dances, sings and acts in the studio. He is a child acting out his imagination in front of mirrors with no audience [except for] my wife and I.

MoCP: Can you describe the process of “setting the scene” for each photograph? Are they “art directed,” as in a film, with careful attention to sets and costumes, or are they more improvised?

TR: I am not sure I would call myself a director. I think Allison is more of the photographer because she is behind the camera most of the time, and can tell us what she sees. I think the whole process is closest to creating a painting. The first thing I do when I go down to the studio is paint my wall, or start working with the background of the scene while I drink my coffee. It is like stretching. Piece by piece is added while I continually go to the camera to see if everything is in its right place and compositionally correct. I often use chairs or just imagine where I would like Allison and Ethan to stand. They come down later in the afternoon, and that is when life comes to the work. I like that most of my images were all shot against the same wall because it expresses how much work goes into each scene.

MoCP: In your artist statement you describe how the apparent “imperfections” of the photographs provide metaphoric reverberations in your work. I think of you as a sort of a conceptual bricoleur – cobbling together disparate elements the way you describe your family making the chicken coop with recycled wood. Yet these “imperfections”–like fixer stains–leave a lot to chance. How does chance play a role in your work? Do you anticipate it? Incite it?

TR: When I talk about the imperfections of my work, I like to use a dollar bill as an example. A dollar bill can be crisp right out off the press or it can be folded, ripped, written on or crinkled up and wet from the washer. You can still spend both bills. The photograph is the same. I am thirty years old and had the opportunity to live a life of experiences that resemble the second dollar bill. Yes, some of these experiences I have questioned but I would never take them back because they are who I am and have created my aesthetic and shaped my ideas. Chance plays a very small role in my work.

Jimi Hendrix is my favorite artist. I would like to think I improvise rather than take chances. To improvise one must have knowledge first in what they are doing. If I am in the studio and run out of tape and need something sticky, I improvise. If it is in view for my audience it makes more sense metaphorically.

With that said, even though every photograph may be a different size or contrast, they are similar to themselves. I write down everything in the darkroom. The more pictures that I create, the more I can anticipate the way the light, shadows, and mirrors will affect the look of the final work. As far as printing, I never use filters. I know what skin tone Ethan and I are and keep it consistent to that. The lighting and effects are all done in the studio not the darkroom. Besides some personal rules set up for myself, as long as the works are in the fixer long enough and washed well, anything goes.

Don’t miss Tim Roda’s exhibition at MoCP - there’s just a little over a week left!

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