Category: art stuff

p2: what makes a group

Posted on Posted in art stuff, the fora

what makes a group successful– goals, skills, personalities,  relationship to the material.. relationships to each other..ability to gather information and human resources..

Two simplified distillations: one group succeded, the others didn’t/ haven’t.

Success group:

  • age, under 35. most in 20s
  • daily life, job, school: art or closely related field such as conservation
  • income is widely distributed: from miminum wage to mid-six figure.
  • committed to succeeding, knowing of other grouping failures.
  • intensely focused on researching details.
  • persistent interaction with possible sources, vendors. Establish ties to sales-marketing executives.
  • willing to exchange effort without claim
  • driven by art as experimental form of human nature: foundation impulse… very wide range of subjects, topics considered suitable for photography. 

Other efforts lack most of the above ‘group’ and aesthetic components. They share financial extremes; they lack trust of other members. Never made the link to build a group buying fund. Not one group had someone to seed the business-to-distrbute and dissolve initiative.  They work within a destroyed social trust.

The success group keypoint person even reached out to people on one of the cornerstone film forums only to be rebuffed.

Leaf & Frank +

Posted on Posted in art stuff, book shelf, studio table, visual mindTagged , ,

Robert Frank ( November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019 ), June Leaf  (August 4, 1929 – July 1, 2024) 

success feeds through interaction . it’s a very fortunate artist who gets to share their life fully with another .

steidl’s ink factory –One form of the atelier. [ g-d couldn’t spell-find ] Home to book forms of both Robert Frank and June Leaf. August 2026 that is changing — [ jul16 steidl news ]

The group can be small, but it must be . In an ideal artworld every0ne is an artist. Your daily minimums are fullfilled by nearest. The scroll unrolls — you mark out portions with increasing fluency. 

The days when the group was a photo lab are gone. The print dryer doesn’t exist. 

work unrolls — The harder part of working is finding others to work with not on your work but on the work they make  that  makes your work .. their work amplified their life.. The coral reef.

Worlds, manners of stimulation — tiktoking between observation and conception — construction and marshalling. 

Steady-state studios over decades in New York and Mabou proved art accumulates within a space. Physical memory. Leaf: “I have discovered that thought is infinite” 1975 — “It is impossible to do the same story every day.” She worked daily, relying upon visual intuitions, much like Robert. Her first training was physical as a ballet dancer. “When I see a drawing it’s like a locomotive or something powerful into which I just put back the machine.” Along her craft path, she learned and built a forge. She builds her drawings/paintings as sculpture. As if forging a multipart art world.

Art has no singularity — all is wireframe. The lucky live within an accepting world that nourishes … Artists do more when living with other artists … 

Fn,  [own] because of so many uses of “hyper-personal” use by Foster. Master’s degree in 1991 from Brown University.[Looking closely and nudging others toward a shift in perception have become life’s work for Foster ] ~b. 1965

SF Camerawork closing

Posted on Posted in art stuff, as written

Camerawork will close its doors at the end of August 2026

PASSING ALONG

Last Operating Week
Our last week of operation is this Wednesday through Sunday. We will be open from 11 AM to 6 PM.

August Members' Critique
The August 16 Members' Critique will be our last. If you've already signed up, we look forward to seeing you from 4–6 PM.

https://sfcamerawork.org/sf-camerawork-homepage

>> SF Camerawork began as Lamkin Camerawork Gallery in Fairfax. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, its founder John Lamkin brought the gallery to San Francisco and sold it to his gallery volunteers for $1. It became a nonprofit in 1977. Photographers like Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips and Hal Fischer are associated with the gallery’s early days — artists who were expanding understandings of photography as a conceptual tool in the ’70s and ’80s.

Early Organizers

  • Hal Fischer: Conceptual photographer and writer known for works like Gay Semiotics.
  • Donna-Lee Phillips: Conceptual photographer and early champion of alternative photographic processes.
  • Lew Thomas: Artist, publisher, and central figure in West Coast conceptual photography.
  • John Lamkin: Photographer who initially helped establish the venue under the early name Lamkin Camerawork Gallery.
  • Craig Morey: Photographer and early organizing member.
  • Ted Hedgpeth: Artist and early participant in the collective