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Tomorrow in Seattle: SPJ Print Auction

For those north of the Columbia, the annual Society of Professional Journalists print auction in Seattle is a wonderful time for a great cause. I had an absolute blast there two years ago and was a judge for last year’s Passion Project grant. Go have a beer or two and buy a print to support photographers!

Here’s what they have to say:

Join SPJ Western Washington and Northwest Journalists of Color/Asian American Journalists Association Seattle for a print auction and fundraiser for grants for photographers and filmmakers in Washington state Friday, Feb. 28 at Machine House Brewery in Seattle.

Passion Project grants support photojournalists working on documentary projects during a time when publications are cutting staff positions and funding for visual journalism. The NW Photojournalism community generously donates prints for this auction.

Prints will be available for sale, along with books and other items. Previous grantees will share about their experience and projects. Come show your support!

A suggested donation of $10 is requested, which comes with one drink ticket. All proceeds from sales and donations will support the Passion Projects grant program.

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Photolucida and Portland Photo Month in Full Swing

Renowned consultant Mary Virginia Swanson speaking right now at the Benson Hotel about using Instagram as a social media strategy for high-end photography.

Greetings from Photolucida, the biannual jewel of Portland Photo Month. Luminaries from around the world are here at the Benson Hotel through Sunday for pre-arranged portfolio reviews, but there are other events open to the public.

Tonight’s Portfolio Walk at the Portland Art Museum is a chance to see the work of hundreds of photographers at once. From Photolucida: “This fan-favorite event is open to the public and draws a huge crowd so get there early (or, hot tip, late)! Over 150 emerging and established photographers lay their photographs out on tables to present to the public – you! This event is a wonderful chance for the Portland community to meet photographers, engage in conversation, and view photographic works. Join us at the Portland Art Museum in the Fields Ballroom from 6-9pm for this always-dynamic event!”

At Blue Sky Gallery, Daesha Devón Harris will speak about her work at 5:30 tomorrow (Friday.) Also on Friday, Small Talk Collective will have their closing reception for RUMORS at Wolff Gallery from 5:00-7:00. And the wonderful AINT-BAD will have a book release party at Ampersand from 7:00-9:00.

On Saturday, a silent auction starting at noon and Photo Book Fair from 6:30-9:00 will be delightful. From Photolucida: “This evening event is all about celebrating the photobook! Join 12 small-press publishers set up with collectible, hard-to-find-elsewhere publications on hand to view or purchase. Publishers include AINT-BAD, Candela Books, Dark Spring Press, Daylight Books, Fall Line Press, Fraction Editions, Kehrer Verlag, Kris Graves Projects, One Twelve, Princeton Architectural Press, Radius Books, and Zatara Press. Many artists will be in attendance to sign copies.”


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Humanitarian Photographers Working Overseas Discuss Their Work This Week in Portland

Photograph by Greg Constantine: Galjeel in Kenya: Galjeel children thrived in Kenya’s school system before the Galjeel in Kenya were stripped of their Kenyan citizenship. Handprints from Galjeel children cover the wall of an abandoned school outside of Garsen in northern Kenya. After the Galjeel were evicted from their land, international organizations built a new school for the Galjeel community but the Kenya government forced them to halt construction in 2005. Now, most children from the Galjeel community do not go to school.

Photographing humanitarian issues in some of the most difficult places on Earth really is a calling to a challenging way of life — bringing effective public awareness to nearly unimaginable scopes of hardship. Several local photographers have answered that call, and are speaking about it in Portland this week.

On Friday at the Oregon Historical Society, photographers Greg Constantine, Andrew Stanbridge, John Rudoff, Elizabeth Mehren and Jim Lommasson spoke during Exiled to Nowhere: A Symposium on the Rohingya Crisis. Their powerful panel discussion — Bearing Witness: Documenting Genocide and Mass Atrocities — can be viewed here.

Greg Constantine, photographed by Thomas Pattersonin Seattle in 2018 .

Constantine is definitely not a local photographer. Based in Bangkok, Thailand, Constantine is a longtime Blue Earth Alliance project photographer, and his Nowhere People project has gained prominence as the plight of the Rohingya has become more well-known worldwide.

Another Oregon newcomer — kind of — is Ezra Millstein, a longtime photographer for Habitat for Humanity and other NGOs who is now on staff at Portland’s Mercy Corps. In the past year Millstein has visited 12 countries and shot more than 70,000 photos from the front lines of the war in Yemen to the rice fields of Indonesia. He will show some of this work during A Humanitarian’s Travelogue, a lecture at Mercy Corps tomorrow, April 9. Hear him share the remarkable stories behind his most memorable photos and videos; arrive early for a reception and viewing of Mercy Corps’ newest gallery exhibit, Yemen: Tales of a Perfect Storm.

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Matt Eich events in Portland this week

The smoke of cigarettes and cooking food filters together with a shaft of light in Adrian “Nikki” Wilson’s apartment she shares with her girlfriend “Dominique” and mother Ellen in Greenwood, Mississippi on November 30, 2011. Born and raised in Baptist Town, Nikki recently moved out of her childhood home and across the tracks, where there is more anonymity and less drama. She and her mother moved back into the Baptist Town neighborhood a few months later. Image copyright Matt Eich.

We are very pleased to welcome Matt Eich back to Portland this week. By my lights, he is one of the very best photographers in the country today. Matt is particularly adept at navigating the amorphous space between photojournalism and art.

Matt will speak at Blue Sky Gallery at 3:00 on Saturday, Sept. 8, to open his solo show “I Love You, I’m Leaving.”

AND

the prior evening at Blue Chalk‘s Portland office he will show work from across his career. I’ll bring beer. Everyone is invited!

Friday, Sept. 7 at 6:00.

3150 NW 31st Ave, Portland.