Raab Photobombing Fotoweek Closing Panel: Finding Your Vision & Staying Inspired

So they asked me if I wanted to be on the Festival Closing Conversation panel on “Finding your vision and staying inspired,” to which I wanted to respond, “Hells if I know!”

But actually, of course I have a ton to say on the subject, and even better for the audience, I am surrounded by a competent, inspiring co-panel including moderator Lucian Perkins, and fellow panelists Frank Hallam Day, Marvin Joseph, Bill Crandall, and especially, Astrid Riecken.  This Closing Conversation will take place at Fotoweek Central, 2801 16th Street NorthwestWashington, DC, 20009 on Sunday November 15 from 3:30-5:00 pm. Afterwards we can share a cab to get down to the National Museum of Women in the Arts supper with Carrie Mae Weems to thusly ponder if an artist can inspire social change. Inspiration, vision, social change, victuals. What more could anyone ask for of a November Sunday?

The Invisible Wall opens at Georgetown University Thursday Oct. 29 & Other Fotoweek Previews

Hello.  I’ve got a few openings around town around FotoweekDC, beginning with the lead off: The Invisible Wall @ Georgetown University’s Spagnuolo Gallery

 Thursday Oct. 29 at 5 -7.  If you can make it I will be speaking from 5-6.

Next up: the exhibit I curated for Fotoweek “My Kingdom for a Stage: Staged Photography in Conceptual and Documentary Practices” through the work of 17 Iberoamerican photographers.

© Adriana Duque “Maria 25”

The public opening will be Friday Nov. 6 at Hillyer Art Space tucked away in a back alley near the Cosmos Club in Dupont Circle, 9 Hillyer Ct NW, Washington, DC 20008.  Finding the artists featured in this show was both fun and frustrating, and greatly aided with the help of Fabian Goncalves Borrega at the Art Museum of the Americas and Idurre Alonso at the Getty.  Un mil gracias.  The artists who agreed to participate in this show represent a wealth of practices.

Conceptually, the work often follows the tradition of magical realism in recreating fantasy worlds meant to inform our current realities as in Mexican artists Dulce Pinzon’s “Global Warming,” or in “Maria 2.” In the latter image, Colombian artist Adriana Duque recreates a world of childhood fantasy where a young Infanta sojourns resplendent and bejeweled, a modern interpretation of a baroque Colonial fantasy.

Documentary photography is considered to be the sacred terrain of the unaltered photograph, but it can employ elements of staged photography to powerful effect. Looking inwards, Ecuadorean photographer Paola Paredes, set a stage composed of three cameras recording the moment when she told her parents she was gay. The photographic series records pain, pathos, and humor.

© Pao Paredes from the series “The Unveiling”

I am very excited to feature the works of:

Argentina/Irina Werning

Brazil/Mostra Tua Capa

Chile/Rodrigo Valenzuela

Colombia/Adriana Duque

Costa Rica/Eloy Mora

Ecuador/Paola Paredes

El Salvador/Fred Ramos

Espana/Garcia de Marina

Guatemala/Mario Santizo

Honduras/Hector Rene

Mexico/Dulce Pinzon

Paraguay/Norberto Duarte

Peru/Rafael Soldi

Portugal/Miguel Proença

Uruguay/Roberto Fernandez

Republica Dominicana/Fausto Ortiz

Venezuela/ Francisco Elías Prada

Next up WPOW’s annual juried show at Fotoweek Central at the Former Spanish Ambassador’s Residence opens with a reception on Tues Nov 10th @ 8pm with a $5 donation to fotoweek suggested at the door.  Yours truly won best in show, with the image from The Invisible Wall below.Prior to the opening WPOW is hosting  “Picturing Diversity: Expanding the View,” a panel discussion during FotoWeekDC on coverage of minorities and culture in photojournalism. The panelists include photographers Zun Lee and Endia Beal, and will be moderated by Washington Post Director of Photography MaryAnne Golon.

The panel will be immediately followed by opening exhibition
reception for WPOW’s Annual Juried Exhibition at 8PM which is free and open to the public. Please consider a $5 donation to our sponsorFotoWeekDC at the reception.

Picturing Diversity: Expanding the View
When: Nov. 10, 2015 at 6:30 PM (doors open at 6PM)
WPOW Juried Show Opening Reception
When: Nov. 10, 2015 at 8-10 PM
Where: FotoWeek Central 1750 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009.
Cost for entry to the panel is $10, which defrays the cost of the program.

Featured photographers:
Aude Guerrucci; Allison Shelley; Becky Harlan; Caroline Lacey; Ellie Van Houtte; Erin Scott Photography; Gabriela Bulisova; Gabriella Demczuk; Jacquelyn Martin; Kristin Adair; Kate Warren; Lindsey Léger; Leigh Vogel; Lexey Swall; Lauren Schneiderman; Maria Daniel Balcazar; Stephanie Cordle Frankel; Sarah Miller; Susana Raab; Melissa Golden; Meghan Dhaliwal