Expiration Notice: March 2009

Volume 2!

Welcome to Volume 2. We have continued to be inundated with a fantastic crop of submissions, and after considerable consideration (and the odd sleepless night) we have settled on this month's selection. Again some artists you may be aware of, others perhaps not, but one thing is for sure, they all deserve to have their work seen by as wide an audience as possible. So set your monitors for optimum viewing pleasure, get yourselves a cold one and relax with EXPIRATION NOTICE VOLUME 2.

As with the last edition if you submitted and didn't make this one, hang fire you may well be featured in forthcoming Volumes, and as always keep those comments and submissions coming.

Cheers, the EXPIRATION CREW.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS:

Seba Kurtis

Seba Kurtis is working from the inside. Having lived as an illegal immigrant himself, he is well placed to understand his subject on a personnel level. He is not a documentary photographer in the traditional sense, but he does produce documents, and these documents, with their accidental aesthetic and light leaks, rendering parts of the subject only partially visible, are beautifully apt. MP

Sparky Campanella

Sparky's compositions are fragmented, minimalist images which often keep one guessing as to just what you're looking at. These are fleeting, subliminal glimpses served freeze dried and unconcerned with the grand scheme of more "traditional" landscapes. They're also some of the most sensual images I've ever seen. SB

Tim Atherton

Tim Atherton photographs as a way of exploring traces left by people in the quieter terrain vague area's of the city. Photographing cities in the past, has usually involved small camera's and hustle & bustle. More recently it tends to involve banal landscape and large colour photographs. Tim's work avoids both these paths, using mono and honing in on the clues left and the details created by it's inhabitants. He creates beautifully still yet often complex compositions. MP

Jamie Drouin

Many typologies tend to concentrate solely on the objects they seek to catalogue, their subject matter afforded little regard as to background, composition or lighting. Or, they are presented in near absolute uniformity. Jamie Drouin's Iceland Towers however, portrays stark and strikingly beautiful landscapes, each individual photograph as capable of standing on its own strengths as the towers they depict. SB

Seba Kurtis- 700 Miles (The changing face of America)

"There are currently 45million Hispanics working or living in the USA, (particularly from Mexico) of which 12 million are suspected illegal. This diluting of their race breeds insecurity in some American citizens, fearful of the face of America being changed. An anti-immigrant crusade has developed to prevent illegal aliens from crossing the southern border. In 2006 President Bush authorised the fencing of 700miles of the US-Mexico border of the states of California, Texas and Arizona. This $2.2 billion project is yet to materialise, but has been compared to the Berlin Wall. Patriotic Americans have given up their free time to become vigilantes “Minutemen”, who secure the border themselves and report any infiltration to border police from 24hour video cameras in their own home" Seba Kurtis

Sparky Campanella- Horizon

I saw a man pursuing the horizon- The Black Riders; Stephen Crane

Any horizon defines our immediate limits and ranges our world view. But instead of the effortless, ephemeral expanse of the natural, constructed horizons of concrete and steel create absolute barriers. Instead of a boundless palette of meadows and mountains, urban horizons seem empty and stark. Our ability to coexist with nature is spotty; what does that say about our species as a part of nature herself? These images present a stand-off, evenly divided between the patterned rigidity of man–made and the random organic of nature. There’s beauty in how both halves simultaneously oppose and complement each another. We look to any horizon, man–made or natural, for inspiration and perspective. city dwellers leave behind much of the natural world, yet we can’t leave behind our need for that which the horizon provides. We still pursue it.

Bodies of Work: Complementary Colors- Renewal of the Vietnamese land and people after the war, 2008; Portrait- Abstract portraits represented by close-up photos of skin, ongoing; 40 over forty- Portraits of women over forty, ongoing; 39 minutes- An every-39-minute capture of the entire year, 2006; Boundaries- Non-sexual connections across the sexual spectrum, 2005; Horizon- The urban horizon, 2004.

Solo Exhibitions: DWC Gallery- Chicago, 2008; Koelsch Gallery- Houston, 2006.

Tim Atherton Traces-Alleyways & Spandrels

"The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the street, the gratings of the windows, the bannister's of the steps, the antennae of the lightning-rods, the poles of the flags. Every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls" Italo Calvino, The Invisible City

"Why do I photograph? Because for me it is an essential way of seeing, of exploring and understanding something or somewhere. I’m drawn to the traces people leave, the evidence or signs that the camera can discover, often seeming to find them in unnoticed or disregarded terrain.

The principle of exchange states that every contact leaves a trace – that with contact between two things there will be an exchange. I see this as being not only the exchange that takes place between inhabitant and place, but also between photographer and place – the trace of light on film – an exchange. I find myself searching for these traces, this evidence, collecting it and trying to make sense of it - trying to interpret it in some way – reaching provisional conclusions which are then either discarded or built on. Which is how I come to be photographing alleyways (and spandrels – I’m drawn to both meanings of the word: its architectural use, which seems applicable to urban planning, and also its appropriation by evolutionary biologists: a sort of unintended consequence of no practical use, but which is there nonetheless. It seems in many ways to apply to the unintended places and terrain vague of the suburbs)". Tim Atherton.

Photographer and artist Timothy Atherton has been taking photographs for over 20 years, obtaining his technical training in the British Army. He was educated at Middlesex & Durham Universities and after working and photographing in Britain for a number of years, including a year spent documenting unemployment in post-industrial NE England, he moved to arctic Canada in 1989, living in Iqaluit, Tuktoyaktuk and Yellowknife. In February 2005 he moved to Edmonton, Alberta. In recent years Timothy Atherton’s work has involved working with large format images leading to explorations in conceptual social and urban landscape projects.

Timothy Atherton’s work has appeared in Maclean’s Magazine, Saturday Night, the Globe & Mail, New York Times, L.A. Times, Forbes, Azure, Canadian Architect and numerous other national and international publications.

Jamie Drouin- Iceland Towers

The communication towers in Iceland sporadically dot the landscape, suggesting a meandering invisible line that connects one community to the next. They appear in a variety of locations, such as in the middle of a private field, nestled into the mountains, or situated proudly in the center of towns, with the basic form typically being a repetition of a hut (often green) and a tower. However, the towers are also highly individualized structures which could be interpreted as a unique sculptural language using variations of shape and number of objects to define a particular place.

Jamie Drouin was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1970 and received his BFA from the University of Victoria. His work primarily focuses on social interactions with the landscape, the way individuals and communities define spaces for recreation, industry, and privacy. It also highlights the way in which dislocated artifacts are created when conventions are altered over time, or abandoned.

Drouin has exhibited worldwide with solo exhibitions in Japan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Canada, UK, and has been featured in publications such as Leica World, Camera & Darkroom, Photo Life, and Harper's Bazaar.

Jamie Drouin lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia with his wife.