I received this "media alert" in my inbox last week and did a triple take. Behold:

MEDIA ALERT

What:
Introducing Bond Street Gallery, a new gallery for contemporary photography, located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The first exhibition opens next week and is titled Young Curators, New Ideas. A group exhibition organized by Amani Olu and curated by Alana Celii & Grant Willing (Fjord Photo), Michael Bühler-Rose, Jon Feinstein (Humble Arts Foundation), Laurel Ptak (I Heart Photograph), Amy Stein, and Lumi Tan (Why + Wherefore).

The exhibition examines different trends and perspectives in contemporary art photography through the bias of six new and seasoned curators. Each curator (or curatorial group), using roughly ten feet of space, aims to engage viewers in a discussion on where he or she believes art photography is today.

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Um, WHOA. That's a crazy A-List group of curatorial folk! I decided to have a little chat with one of these curators, specifically, Humble Art Foundation's Jon Feinstein, who is also a photographer. I asked him about lots of things, but found the conversation about the rise of mysticism and magic in contemporary photography especially interesting. The photographers Feinstein chose-- Hannah Whitaker, Talia Chetrit, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, and Ann Woo, represent a new canon of rising stars in art photography.



This is Jon Feinstein.

Jon! This Bond Street show has quite the young curator star list! How did you become part of the show?

Totally. I'm psyched to be a part of it! I've worked closely with Amani on Humble Arts Foundation shows for the past few years so it was pretty natural for him to invite me to participate.

How did you become a curator in the first place-- I am a big fan of your portraiture; how do you balance doing your own work and the curatorial stuff? Do they feed off of each other?

I got into curating while I was still working as a photo editor for Heeb magazine. While I loved working on editorial and fashion shoots, my background was in art photography, having studied under Stephen Shore (and other amazing professors who I won't name drop at the moment) at Bard, and I wanted to do something more in line with those interests. I started working at a stock photo agency and met Amani, who had begun brainstorming ideas about Humble Arts Foundation.


Jon Feinstein, Bob and Lindsay, 2003

We got to talking about our backgrounds in magazine editing and photography and came up with the idea for Humble's original inception, group-show.com, which at that point was a simple monthly showcase for emerging photographers. It has now grown to include online solo shows, affordable limited edition prints, a grant program and about four physical shows per year. We have a big group show coming up in Chelsea in the fall, as well as our first Humble promoted physical solo show which will be announced soon. It's incredibly daunting to be making my own work simultaneously so I try to keep it as separate from Humble as possible, but am incredibly inspired by all of the work I've been seeing over the past few years.


Jon Feinstein, Ben, 2003

Where do you think the new interest in photographic mysticism came from? From NASA's astronomy picture of the day, to Hannah Whitaker's rainbow bunny, I'm seeing (and loving) this stuff everywhere. Is it particular to our generation-- to our notions of "futurism" and "fantasy"? Does World of Warcraft play a role, mayhaps?

I think this new "photographic mysticism" is incredibly interesting, and has many more layers than just light, color, prisms,etc. I think the larger umbrella of new mystical explorations in photography can in some ways be interpreted as a step beyond postmodern and narrative photography. While earlier generations of photographers were exploring identity politics and notions of truth and representation, often through staged photographs, this new "movement" seems to be focused more on form and photography's physical properties, not only for their aesthetic value, but but for their metaphorical qualities as well.


Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Geode, 2008


Hannah Whitaker, Apple Tree

I see both as being incredibly influenced by painting, but while Crewdson or diCorcia may have been influenced by both Hopper and some of the surrealists, this group of younger photographers, especially Ann Woo and Talia Chetrit, seem to be playing with much more abstract ideas of expressionist painters like Rothko and Barnett Newman. As for trends in photography, I think the growing attention to this kind of work in some ways may come from a desire to create work that is as controlled as the staged work that was studied in college photo classes, but without relying on excessive budgets and other people's schedules. I was talking to a photographer a few weeks ago about how so much of this work can be made from a photographer's studio or home, and really takes the idea of "making" photographs to an entirely new level.


Ann Woo, Lisa, Sunset



Talia Chetrit, Spectrum, 2007, Inkjet, 2007

How do you see your future in the industry? It's so interesting to see so many of these young curators multi-tasking as designers and photographers... do you think there's a new trend in the curatorial world to make it more accessible, now that things like blogs and small arts organizations are gaining more of a foothold in the industry?

I'm not quite sure where I see my future in the industry. Much of my curatorial work will operate through Humble (unless of course a major institution invites me to curate a show, but that hasn't happened yet :) ), but my main aim is to continue to curate bodies of work that are not only pretty to look at, but are informed and challenging and push the medium of photography forward. I definitely think there's been a growing trend in online-based photo organizations, and it has democratized photography at an amazing rate.


Hannah Whitaker

As long as the editing and curation is tight, informed and well organized, I think it's a wonderful thing. What I think is so great about the development of new/online curation is that it has allowed new ideas to flourish with more focus on work that is challenging, and less on what is potentially saleable. As for my own work, I have a couple new projects that I have been developing over the past year which will be officially "launched" within the next few months. Some of this work is going to be  in a couple shows that will be opening in the fall in NYC and Chicago.


Did you coordinate your image and theme ideas with the other curators, or were you all on your own? What's your favorite photo in the show (will you tell me)?


Gerald Edwards III, Investigation into the Disruption of Power, 2006


We were pretty much all on our own. Since there are such unique visions from the curators involved there has been little overlap and I think the show will feel incredibly varied. I won't comment on my favorites from my own show, but I've seen some previews of Laurel's animated GIFs presentation and think it's fantastic. I also love Gerald Edwards' image (which was used as the postcard for the show) which is featured in the Fjord show and Ofer Wolberger's "Maggie" series, which is included in Amy Stein's show. I haven't seen any of the other work yet so I can't really comment at this point, but I'm excited!


Ofer Wolberger, from the Maggie Series
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Here are the specs for tomorrow's opening; If you're in New York and you like photos and rainbows, it's pretty much a must: