Born in 1957, in Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona), Spain, Pep Ventosa has been fascinated with photography from his first camera gift at the age of 10.
Ventosa states, "I use photographs as raw material, like paint, to create new imagery. I like to explore the space between painting and photography. I believe photography is not only a tool to document things but also one that’s part of the rich history of picture making. I’m particularly interested in representing familiar subjects in ways perhaps not seen before."
"We are surrounded by trees, yet we often walk by them without a thought. In this series, I walk in a circle around a tree, shooting it repeatedly along my path, then overlay and refine the shots to discover what became of the the orbit, the tree and its environment in the round. I like the idea of rendering what is sometimes a complex environment into an abstract backdrop, leaving the tree with the leading role."
The Family of Mannequin is a group exhibit by members of “F/8”. These are some of our photographs of mannequins that are current or past residents of Continental Display, a business in Sacramento that sells used furnishings and paraphernalia from department stores and clothing shops that have either closed or replaced their old fixtures. Continental Display has mannequins—lots and lots of mannequins—retired now after years of service, or biding their time between jobs. The mannequins are waiting quietly (at least during the times we have seen them) for repairs and perhaps new homes. However, Continental Display will itself be closing this year, so the fate of the remaining mannequins is at best uncertain. Sadly, the demand for mannequins like these has diminished greatly in recent years.
The Surrealists believed the creativity that comes from deep within a person’s subconscious is more powerful and more authentic than any product of conscious thought. They sought a revolution against the constraints of the rational mind.
Born in Chongqing, China, Jing Zhou is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and Associate Professor in New Jersey, USA. Her award winning work, from digital print to animation, from visual design to interactive project, has been widely shown and collected internationally.
Jerry Berry’s inspiration for these images comes from his interest in Zen, Asian culture, and painting. Koi have been an inspiration for artists for millennia; especially in the Asian traditions. The beauty of color, form, and movement of these fish bring much joy to the viewer. Berry’s interpretations of Koi have been developed based on his growth as a photographer and artist. He says that “as photographers we are taught that our camera is the perfect tool to capture the ‘defining moment’ and is unequaled at reproducing finely focused images of sharpness and detail. We subsequently strive to perfect our craft with this in mind.” 
Jane Olin’s childhood years were spent in Steilacoom, a tranquil village overlooking Puget Sound in Washington State. Her introduction to photography came in high school where she fell in love with the darkroom experience. To her regret, she did not pursue an arts education and it was many years before she rediscovered her passion for photography. During the interval, she traveled widely for business. Japan, of all countries she visited, had the most profound impact, and its aesthetics and its Zen Buddhism resonated deeply with her.
What happens to us when we travel? If we are lucky, we become transformed. We do this by leaving the comfort of our home and making ourselves available to unfamiliar cultures and amazing new landscapes. The adventure and the challenge of putting ourselves, however temporary, in another place or way of being, can transform any person who makes themselves available to such opportunities. It can often invigorate our own way of seeing just how wonderful, precious and often times sad, life can really be.
From the time she was a child, Susan Turner has enjoyed being with people different from her. It thus strikes her as perfectly natural that she spent most of the period from 1982 to 2009 living and photographing in Papua New Guinea, a large, distant country with more than 800 languages. Her personal endeavor during this time was to record, in the most honest and beautiful way she could, the daily and ritual life of this beautiful, diverse, and fascinating place.
In April, member photographer, Frank Francis shares his private view of Southeast Asia through a series of story telling images, which are both emotionally compelling and stunning in composition. His process includes seeking out remote places, which provide access to people who are not so much a part of our modern digital world, who therefore tend to react differently to the camera. He finds capturing the right moment easier when people have been minimally exposed to other photographers.
Kendall Isotalo’s body of work Quietude examines the emotional space that can occur during a time when a perceived threat of loss and transition coexists with feelings of gratitude and hope. She has found that in his attempts to be fully present and aware, she is able to experience profound moments of stillness, quiet, and tranquility.
Sara Friedlander has created a series of three-dimensional mixed media visual narratives to honor courageous women, who left their homeland and their families, often under great duress, and traveled to America to start a new life. Most of them spoke no English; holding steadfast to their hopes for a brighter future, they faced daunting challenges in order to establish themselves in this new world. She has collected vintage portraits as well as images in the public domain (taken either in photographic studios or on the street during the first quarter of the 1900's) and then, using Photoshop, digitally combined them with her own photographs (landscapes, birds, trees, architecture) and tied them together with paint.
Jan Manzi enjoys photographing a range of man-made and natural subjects — often abstracting or isolating them in a way to bring attention to things that might not ordinarily be noticed. As she says, “I find myself responding to the wonderful play of light and shadow that can transform the appearance of a building, a forgotten object, a plant, or a rock.” Sometimes the results are a bit quirky, which can cause viewers to say “what is that?”… followed by surprise at how there can be a quiet beauty in so much that surrounds them, if they only take a little time to look and see.
Street photographers Casey LeClair and John Hernandez share the Main Gallery for this candid and striking exhibit of street photography. Casey’s images are in black and white, contrasted by John's color photos. Together they provide a broad spectrum of what street photography can be. Each photographer has a distinct style and way of looking at their surroundings. From the ironic to the gritty, this exhibit offers a slice of reality from two distinctly different viewpoints.
Mark Coggins is both an author and photographer. His images have been used to illustrate his own novels as well as the books of other writers, notably Patricia Cornwell’s Red Mist (end papers) and Roland Barthes’s A Lover's Discourse: Fragments (cover photograph). Most of his photographs are street scenes from cities throughout the world. “I seek to capture people interacting or engaged in a representative activity,” he says. “I hope my work conveys the energy, communal bonds, and in some cases, inherent mystery and alienation of urban life.”
