Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Darcy Padilla’s Award Winning Work, “The Julie Project” – Opens THIS Thursday, May 20th, 5:00 – 7:30 PM
JULIE – “For the last 16 years I have been documenting the life of an AIDs-afflicted woman, Julie Baird. Julie has been on her own since her sexually abusive stepfather threw her through a glass window when she was 14 years old. She ran away from home, lived on the street, used drugs, contracted HIV, and had five children. When I first met Julie in February 1993 in the lobby of a SRO hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, she was 18 years old and had just given birth to her first child, Rachel. Julie and Jack Fyffe, the 19 year-old father were both HIV positive. Rachel, they said, was their main reason for living.
Throughout the years I have photographed Julie’s complex story of AIDS, abusive relationships, drug use, multiple homes and poverty. A victim of child abuse, Julie often neglected her own children. A high school dropout, she depends on welfare to feed her family. HIV-positive, she fights to stay off drugs.
Julie’s is a story of a survivor. The telling of it enriches the understanding of the poorest and most desperate among us. I am continuing to document Julie’s life and it is my fervent hope that Julie’s story inspires a greater awareness of the plight of people like her.”
Darcy Padilla’s unflinching portrayal of Julie Baird is one of the most in-depth, visceral, and captivating documentaries in recent memory.
Her work has received numerous grants and awards including an Alexia Foundation for World Peace & Understanding Award, Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
The latest iteration of this paramount work will be on display at Fifty Crows Gallery, beginning with our May 20th opening. Doors will be open from 4 PM to 7:30 PM. Fifty Crows would like to welcome everyone to join us in this momentous event. We hope to see you there.
Fine Print Program – Shelby Lee Adams
One of the most important components of FiftyCrows is the Fine Print Program, which is a major source of funding for the foundations initiatives. These limited-edition prints have been donated by 35 masters of photography, such as Eve Arnold, Hansel Mieth, and Jacques Lowe. Purchasing a print from the FiftyCrows Fine Print Program enables the foundation to cultivate the future of documentary photography by creating more exhibitions, lectures, and grants. All the prints can be viewed and purchased online at the FiftyCrows website. Please note that if you become a member of FiftyCrows for $35/year you can receive a $200-$1500 discount on photographs from the Fine Print Program. Contact FiftyCrows at info@fiftycrows.org if you are interested in membership or Fine Prints.

Lincoln, Maw and Shorty, KY, 1992. Gelatin silver print, 9x12 1/16 in., signed by the artist, introduced as a Photo Fund Collector Print in 1999 as edition of 100. Market Price: $1000 Member Price: $700
For 25 years, Shelby Lee Adams has been documenting the people of Appalachia. His affectionate portraits of individuals and families speak to us with tenderness and sincerity, and the fact that Adams returns to the mountains year after year is a testament to his dedication to show their challenging existence while maintaining their dignity. Adams has received two NEA fellowships, and his work is also included in the collections of many major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Adams’ photographs have been published in two volumes: Appalachian Portraits, 1993, and Appalachian Legacy, 1998.
Judith Fox on NPR
Get an intimate, behind-the-scenes glimpse of I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s, as Judith Fox shares her personal account with NPR. Click here to listen to the interview.
I told Ed that some of the photographs I took of him saw straight through to his soul and asked if he minded being that exposed. He said “No. You can show my soul; just don’t show my penis.” So that’s our agreement.
For more information on Judith Fox and FiftyCrows, click here.
affect/effect: Photographs That Create Change – Lourdes Segade gets a response from the media
Barcelona based photographer, Lourdes Segade offers a story to the affect/effect Series that highlights how one photo essay can catalyze different media sources to produce stories on the same topic. In turn, this generates greater awareness about an issue by expanding the viewing population. Lourdes speaks about this cause and effect as an important factor in order to really make an impact.
“The story that I wanted to show was that a ‘small’ (as they call themselves) can be as good a mom as a non-handicapped woman. It wasn’t easy to find a dwarf mother with a little child but the president of one achondroplasy association in Spain gave me the telephone number of Lorena, the mom with whom I shared lots of time and experiences while shooting my story. Three years later we still keep in touch.
Lorena, a woman in her early thirties, was then unemployed and devoted to her child, Adrián, a 3 year-old wild child. Every day was an adventure with him. I went to the Canary Islands and spent 20 days with them. The story was published one year after we returned. Magazine ‘Yo Dona’ gave six pages to it and also a short video of the child made from short pieces I had recorded. They also asked me to write about my personal experience with that family for the website.
I wanted to let people know about achondroplasy and show that ‘dwarfs’ live as good a life as non-handicapped people. I never expected the reaction that I received from publishing the story. The weeks following the publication of my story, Lorena received calls that another magazine wanted to interview her and reporters from a TV station wanted to follow her family for a day. A handball team wanted to shoot a photo session with the members of the achondroplasy association for their annual calendar in order to create funds for the group.
The association members were very happy, and so was I because I had caused the effect of making more people aware. When I shoot, I tell stories that I think should be known but I never expect my photos to lead to any reaction. Although it was not one photo creating a change for Lorena, the photo essay catalyzed a greater awareness and support for ‘smalls’ in society. By having other media groups produce more stories about dwarfs the net becomes wider and wider of the number of people understanding the issue.”
Painted Photos – IFDP winner Florencia Blanco creates new histories with old histories
In 2002, Florencia Blanco won the FiftyCrows IFDP for her images of the people and place that she grew up in – Salta, Argentina. The essay, Salteños, titled after the name used for residents of the area, documented the daily life in the city, which holds a peculiar diversity and strangeness. A thick tension exists between those with native heritage and those with European heritage. Blanco depicted the class difference in Salta by photographing the elaborate parties and costumes of the rich and the rural simplicity of the poor lower class. She also captured this separation by highlighting the interiors of people’s homes from barren, religious icon adorned walls to plush, colorful, oil-painting and family photography rich living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. Seven years after winning the IFDP, Blanco is having a book published on the Salteños project.
Blanco’s new work seems to extend from her Salta images of oil paintings and family photography in people’s homes. With Painted Photos, Blanco’s fascination with vintage hand painted photographs leads her to create new venues for viewing the images. The setting that she photographs the painted photo in creates a different history for the image that might have lost its roots. With others, she tries to connect the image back to their family through the environment that she places the photo in.
Blanco gives a short history of painted photographs in Argentina and explains how her new images strive to establish a connection between past and present.
Oil painted photographs were a very popular type of portraiture in Argentina during the mid 20th century. Although the companies that produced these photographs were often located in the bigger cities they were rare within the city limits. Traveling salesmen would venture to rural areas to sell these images door to door. Painted photographs offered families access to visual representation of themselves in the way that rich city dwellers commissioned oil-painted family portraits.
Painted photos were usually used for families to make homage to their most beloved family members. Being quite expensive with elaborate frames, they held prestige for the buyer who often had to pay in installments or with a group of people. Most of the portraits were made from photographs of deceased relatives who they wanted to make look distinguished. Immigrants that came to Argentina in the first half of 20th century used these painted portraits to remember their family members that they left behind. Often the clothing depicted in the portrait was completely invented and painted on in accord with different religious celebrations, weddings, or mourning periods.
I find painted photographs in people’s homes or at flea markets. I photograph them in a new settings which is some way related to the image, making a whole new scene and connection for the image that has been in a box or gathering dust on a shelf for decades. I explore the relationship of these images with new spaces in a way that links the lives of the portrayed people with the relatives that bought the photo.
Sometimes they collide. Sometimes they work together.
I am dealing with their power as images themselves, as icons that can deliver certain mood, give a precise atmosphere. And it’s a deeply mysterious one. At the same time, I’m writing the history about these photos in Argentina.