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.

On Notice
Also loving...........

Susan Worsham

Chuck Avery

Keith Dannemiller

Mark Arkless

The Critics on Volume 1...

Well, you can't always please everyone, certainly not these critics- and we appreciate them taking the time to assess the work we present at our humble venue. Thank you, Coeur d'Alene High School (hope we did better this time around).

And finally, next Edition out 27/4/09- keep the submissions coming, until next time..................

NB Images copyright of individual photographers.

WELCOME... to Volume 1!

Thanks for visiting the First Edition of Expiration Notice, the online gallery for emerging photographers 35 and over. We're very happy with the selection of photographers we're presenting today, some names you may already be familiar with, others maybe less so. Styles and content range from hardcore reportage, to the everyday snapshot aesthetic of our surrounding everyday world. And we're quite happy to have extended our originally set parameters from two, to four photographers- and then some (see On Notice- our Honorable Mention Gallery)!

Neither Mark nor I are high tech mavens, you won't find any fancy Flash or other high end bells and whistles here- instead, we'll just concentrate on continuing to feature the work of photographers normally excluded from other venues. Perhaps if truly successful, we'll eventually render ourselves obsolete. In the meantime, we're open to your criticism (hopefully constructive), suggestions, and yes- continued submissions... so we can have yet another go come mid-March!

Please Note:

We received a huge amount of submissions for this our first edition and thanks to you all, we have had to do some tough judging. If you didn't make it into Volume 1 you may well make it into next month's or even the month after. And that's how submissions are now being accepted for future editions, on a rolling basis.

Regarding our judging criteria- there's two of us having similar, albeit individual tastes. After a general consensus of what's in the running, we pick two photographers each according to our considerably subjective criteria. That simple... and hope you enjoy this much deserving work.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS:


Alan George

Last year, I caught one of the very best photography exhibits in all San Francisco not in one of its few premiere photo galleries, but in the lobby of a busy downtown office building. The photographs were of Alan George's stunningly beautiful photographs of eccentrically manicured flora found on San Francisco's residential streets. Not limited to oddly shaped flora, Alan finds beauty in the most Painfully Ordinary of subjects ignored and disdained by tourist and native alike. This is San Francisco through the backdoor- and no matter how worn or seemingly inconsequential the subject matter, there's an overall sense of beauty and grandeur that permeates all of George's work. SB

John Darwell

I recognise so much in John Darwell's series Not Starting From Here. We both live in England's North-West albeit at different ends of the region, and I recognise that light. I know a man like the one leaning on a wall on a housing estate similar to the one I grew up on. I recognise that dining room, the wallpaper, the tablecloth, perhaps laid ready for a "Full English" at a Bed & Breakfast, or maybe the more up market guesthouse, that most quintessential of a stopover for the British traveller. And these are the photographs of a traveller, a traveller contemplating the familiar and wishing to understand a landscape and in the process showing us a little more of things that can be taken for granted. An Englishman's hike in the style of Wainwright, rather than a spitting "Road Trip" by Kerouac. MP

David Wolf

David Wolf's deceptively simple "snapshots" intrigued and puzzled me from the start. His Left Behind photos are, on first glance, not dissimilar from countless other urban street, still life's taken by countless other photographers of discarded or misplaced household objects. The only difference- his work! And there lies the rub. Wolf's photos retain their sense of wonderment, from initial sidewalk visualization to final photographic representation. I'm not sure I'll ever know quite why, but whatever it may be- it's what (in the hands of an artist) elevates a camera from simple recording device to instrument of transformation. SB

George Georgiou

The digital age has made it relatively easy to convert from color to black and white practically on demand, but even today there are few photographers who can shoot either equally well. Classic names like James Nachtwey and Carl DeKyzer automatically come to mind, and as of last year, seems you can add George Georgiou to that small and hallowed pantheon. Although the latter's name and recognition may yet be emerging, his talent and ability have most definitely arrived. SB

Alan George- Immediate Vicinity

"On March 21st, 2007 my daughter was born. My son had, two months prior, celebrated his second birthday. Anyone in similar circumstances can appreciate that there is little time for anything other than domesticated "bliss" and occasionally, some sleep. Photography seemed out of the question. Determined to pick up the camera again, I set about to make the best use of the only time that I had at my disposal, my commute to work which consisted of a 12 minute walk to the subway and a ten minute ride.

Photography, at least to me, has a direct relationship with the "reality" the photographer experiences, either accidental or contrived. The photographer selects some portion of this "reality," captiures it on a two dimensional plane and presents it as a photograph. The job of a photographer is to manage this "reality" in such a way as to result in interesting photographs. Traveling to exotic destinations, achieving access to the otherwise inaccessible locations/people, constructing film set like concoctions; these are but a few of the many "reality" enhancement techniques. None of which were readily available to me. This series of images is a result of an attempt to make the most of my forced 'reality'."

Alan George was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1968. He received a BS from the University of Tennessee in 1992. Alan began his involvement with photography in 2003 and is currently based in San Francisco, California with his wife and two children.