San Francisco Photo Lecture series

"A photographer is not a soldier nor a refugee, he is a spectator who tries to show a situation and if possible, also show how it feels". Bill Burke

San Francisco's PhotoAlliance has announced its Spring lecture series. These outstanding lectures offer intimate presentations and discussions of important work in photography. Typically, two lectures with slide shows are presented, and then there is an opportunity to mingle and talk with the artists (and the often-equally engaging members of the audience) over beer, wine or coffee, after the lectures. It's an ideal way to discover new work and/or meet notable photographers in a convivial setting.

The schedule includes: Bill Burke (February 24, Friday), An-My Le (March 31st, Friday, in collaboration with Aperture West), Joel Sternfeld (April 7th, Friday), Arno Minkkinen (April 18th, Tuesday), and Debbie Flemming Caffery (May 2nd, Tuesday).

First up, this week:

Friday, Febuary 24, 2006, 7:30pm
SFAI Theatre, 800 Chestnut Street, San Francisco

BILL BURKE and KIRSTEN RIAN

Bill Burke’s photography stems from a documentary tradition, but he embellishes and extends the format by incorporating autobiographical events and personal reflections into his images. Since 1982 Burke has made annual trips to Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos which are seen in two artists' books: Mine Fields ('95) and I Want to Take Picture ('87).

His most recent publication Autrefois, Maison Privée, traces the political and economic histories of that region through its architecture. “What the B-52s and tanks didn’t destroy during decades of war, developers from neighboring countries are busily replacing and defacing with their shrines of commerce.”

Born in 1943, Burke received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. His photographs may be found in major collections such as the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Fine Art Boston, the J. Paul Getty Museum. the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art New York, as well as the Smithsonian Institution Washington.

He is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and five National Endowment for the Arts grants. Burke currently resides in Massachusetts and teaches at the school of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

KIRSTEN RIAN

A nationally published poet, musician, painter and arts administrator, Rian has been active in the Portland arts community for 20 years. She has served as the Executive Director of Blue Sky Gallery/Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Inc., for the past 14 years.

This past year she traveled to Finland and held poetry workshops with women refugees relocated to Scandinavia. She also tutors refugees through IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Cultural Organization) and has worked with homeless adults in San Francisco through the Sixth Street Photography Workshop.

Rian will speak on these projects as well as her recent appointment as Executive Director of The Aftermath Project, a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, committed to telling the story, through photography, of what it takes for individuals to overcome disaster, war and conflict.

More info can be found at www.photoalliance.org.

Posted by jimcasper at February 20, 2006 02:28 AM