BIG EYE GALLERY: July 2011

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Bar-Tur Award: Praise for the Personal Lens

Briony Campell, Family Portrait, 2011

In an advancing technological world that exponentially leaps from one new image- capturing gadget to another, photography is becoming a larger universe of tools and methods. Debates breakout over whether such things as digital images can be considered alongside traditional darkroom photography. To those involved in the newly inaugurated Bar-Tur Award these debates must seem as ridiculous as those that questioned the artistic value of photography at its inception. As one of the richest art forms of the modern world, photography seeks patrons that will feed those seeds growing in new directions.

Big Eye Gallery’s own founder Amnon Bar-Tur leads the way with the new Bar-Tur Award, devoted to diversity in photographic approaches and forms while encouraging the photographer to bring a new powerful perspective to the art world. Developed in conjunction with the University of the Arts London in honor of the late Ann Lesley Bar-Tur, the Bar-Tur Award celebrated its first winners this June in London.

Out of four alumni winners Briony Campell won best overall photograph in response to the theme Communication, and out of 12 student winners Sam Ledger won best overall in response to the theme Environment. Each walked away with £2,000 while the four themes of Environments, Communication, Identities and Lifestyles awarded a first place prize of £1,000, a second of £750 and £500 for third place.

While monetary reward is the life-blood of any art, it is only part of the honor in winning the Bar-Tur Award, which also profiles all winners in the Bar-Tur Award Publication, online gallery and traveling exhibition while also having exposed each photographer’s work to a who’s who of the professional photography world. The panel of judges included the talented and highly sought after documentary and portrait photographers Platon Antoniou and Tom Hunter, photographer Aidan Sullivan, Vice President of Photo Assignments at Getty Images, Fumio Nanjo, director of the Mori Art Museum, Caroline Metcalfe, Photography Director at Conde Nast Traveller and Shelley Page, Head of International Outreach at Dreamworks.

Briony Campell, Eating Dad's Dinner, 2011

Briony Campell and Sam Ledger are now the leaders in what is sure to become a prestigious award that not only gathered an abundance of renowned judges sure to set the standard high, but also gathered entrants that succeeded in embodying the goal of the Bar-Tur Award. Briony Campell won for her depiction of her experience during her father’s battle with terminal cancer. The winning photograph “Eating Dad’s Dinner” holds a powerful gaze from Campell herself as she sits at the feet of her father’s sick bed and eats the food he is unable to eat. Her gaze is a clear individual perspective of grief and holds the banner of personal context high.

Sam Ledger brought an entirely elevated perspective through his black and white image “79825619518114.0” of skyscrapers above a cloud layer. It is removed from the human and thus truly ethereal, but hints at some human element that allows the tower in the foreground to communicate to the mention of another in the background.

Each winner may seem at a glance to emphasize the loss of humanity through death and cold, empty constructions, but in actuality their images point to their own human instinct. This instinct forces us to capture and document the importance of one individual point-of-view and way of understanding, but also forces the humanity of the viewer to find their own way to look. All the winners of the Bar-Tur Award not only enrich the photography field, but stand fast in an ever-globalizing and homogenous society to methods of diversity and tools that extend the personal lens.

ALUMNI WINNERS

Communication Briony Campell
Environment Ilsun Maeng
Identities Elisabeth Molin
Lifestyle Yusuke Fujisawa

Claire Lawrie, Louise Looking, 2011

STUDENT WINNERS

Communication
Quincy Scott
Geoff Bartholomew
Christopher Kieling

Environment
Sam Ledger
Jessica Sumerling
Yuanyuan Yang (Luka)

Identities
Georgina McNamara
Claire Clutterbuck
Claire Lawrie


Geoff Bartholomew, NW6 7EJ #1, 2011

Lifestyle
David Shaw
Christopher Down
Magdalena Gluszak

Quincy Scott, Untitled 1, 2011

Yuanyuan Yang (Luka), Fake Vases, 2011

Sam Ledger, 79825619518114.0, 79825619518114.1, 2011

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Judy Garland: 75 Years of Magic

Words and Music, 1948
Courtesy of The Kobal Collection

An exhibition presenting the iconic images and portraits of Judy Garland in her major roles as a film and Broadway star can be viewed online at Big Eye Gallery. Running in conjunction with the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Judy Garland film series, Judy Garland: 75 Years of Magic honors the brilliantly rich body of work this astoundingly short life contributed to cinema, acting, and music.

Star is Born, 1954
Courtesy of The Kobal Collection

In collaboration with The Kobal Collection Big Eye Gallery presents Garland's work in “For Me and My Gal”, "Meet Me in St. Louis", "Strike Up the Band", "Ziegfeld Girl", "Words and Music", "A Star is Born", and of course, "The Wizard of Oz". Photographers Eric Carpenter, Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Frank Cronenweth among others capture Garland on stage and behind the scenes with the famed and talented of her time such as Lana Turner, Mickey Rooney, and Vincente Minnelli.

Frank Cronenweth, Strike up the Band, 1940
Courtesy of The Kobal Collection

Big Eye Gallery is making the exhibition's limited edition framed prints available for purchase. The extraordinary example of this contralto voice now may be heard again through photography reaching beyond the stills of hilarious, seductive, and intimate moments in the life of Judy Garland.

Clarence Sinclair Bull, Judy Garland, 1944

Courtesy of The Kobal Collection

Monday, July 11, 2011

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

In their inaugural exhibition, Big Eye Gallery in collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, orchestrated a unique tribute to the late star of Hollywood’s golden age: Elizabeth Taylor.

The exhibition is a glimpse into a world of rarely seen images of Taylor poised and elegant as ever, in star roles in films such as Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Butterfield 8 for which she won an Academy Award. These rare gems are a part of the Kobal Collection, which features photographs by famous Hollywood photographers, such as Bob Penn, Virgil Apger and Floyd McCarty and present Elizabeth Taylor at the peak of her career, physical glory and immortal beauty.

Taylor blossomed from a child actress into a budding star, lending her legendary regality and distinctive look to the silver screen. Elizabeth: The Golden Age, sought to honor and commemorate the life, beauty and stardom of one of Hollywood’s most charismatic monarchs.

Elizabeth Taylor, Cleopatra. 1963.
Courtesy of the Kobal Collection.

Her grace and seductive gaze beguiles, invites, and portrays a true actress who took on many more roles in her turbulent personal life through her social activism. A pioneering advocate in the fight against AIDS, Taylor used her celebrity status to raise awareness of the deadly disease. In 1991 she established the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Each frame presents a woman who ran with the legends of her time, directors, such as George Stevens and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, actors, such as Richard Burton (whom she married twice) and Paul Newman, and actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman. She was a legend in and of her self and her six decade long career, filled with classic moments can now be viewed at Big Eye Gallery.

Virgil Apger. Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 1958.

Courtesy of the Kobal Collection.

Big Eye Gallery is an online resource for collectors, designers, and architects to choose from a carefully curated selection of limited edition, project specific photographic prints that meet their unique spatial and aesthetic specifications. New works and contemporary photographers are now featured at Big Eye Gallery alongside the enigmatic Elizabeth Taylor.