Weston Photography Newsletter - January 2009

Happy New Year!

Greetings!
The 2008 Print of the Month Portfolio “Carmel Years 1980 – 1990” is complete! We hope you get a chance to view the portfolio and see it in its entirety. www.kimweston.com/pom/pom_january_08.htm
Kim has framed the selection and has hung it in our gallery. It looks great! Viewing it continues to deepen my appreciation for this body of work that was created in the 1980’s – 1990’s.

If you are a member of the POM Club you should have received the December POM and the handsome portfolio box to house your collection in. I hope you will have a chance to hang some of your new images or the whole collection like we have. Thank you!

The 25% discount will be available for individual 2008 POM Prints until January 31, 2009. So don’t miss out on this great opportunity to add to your collection.

Next Year’s Print of the Month Portfolio:
“The Carmel Years, Volume II 1980 – 1990” will be a continuation of last year’s Portfolio. Continuing with more complex set designs that show Kim’s incredible imagination on his photographic journey.

Thanks for another great year!
Kim and I would like to thank you all for buying Kim’s work this past year, being part of the 2008 POM Club, coming to our workshops, tutorials and our fundraisers! Boy we had enough of them this year!

We would like to thank Huntington Witherill, Ryuijie, Roman Loranc, Randy Efros, Scott Campbell, Chuck Davis, Ed Martin and Camille Lenore for showing up with photographs in hand and sharing their knowledge and creativity during our workshops. Another special thanks to Tracy Morrison, Sandy Martin, Larry Padgett, César Gordillo Aguilar and Israel Ramirez Luna. We couldn’t do it without you all. Hope to work with you all in 09.

Again, I want to thank those of you that attended our workshops last year! The work that was created here just keeps getting better and better. Thank you for coming to be with us and thanks for coming back!
Thank you to all of the wonderful models, Moon, Tiffany, Kat and TJ for being so loyal, committed to being here, showing up and being present.

New Workshop Schedule 2009:
The 2009 Workshop Schedule is up! Be sure to check it out and see if you can join us for one this year.

Website: Well after an exciting year I finally posted most of our events along with our workshop photos, Participants photographs and some new visitors up on our website. I am still behind in putting up Kim’s new work but hope to get at it in the next few weeks. It’s beautiful and inspiring and I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Events
I wanted to take a few minutes to recapture some of last year’s events.

January 2008: Kim had a solo “Painted Photograph Show” at the Pacific Grove Art Center. Unfortunately we had the biggest storm of the year the night of his opening. We scheduled it for the next evening, thanks to those that braved the storm and came anyway!

May: Kim and I traveled down to see the “Edward and Kim Weston Fotografos” Exhibition at The Museo-Taller Erasto Cortés, in Puebla, Mexico. This is the show that originated in Oaxaca at the Manual Alvarez Bravo Photography Center. There we met Arq. César Gordillo Aguilar, César arranged for us to come and teach a Nude Figure/Platinum class in Puebla and to see the show. While we were there, Kim gave a live radio interview with an interpreter about the show. The workshop was 4 days and the participants in the workshop were from Puebla and the surrounding cities with some coming down from Mexico City. We photographed in a wonderful abandoned textile mill. The location couldn’t have been better. After we photographed, we developed negatives and Kim taught the platinum printing process. It was amazing to see the full process from beginning to end. I think they all enjoyed themselves and so did we. The people were so fun – we laughed continuously. We met wonderful new friends and hope to go back again soon.

May: Weston Photography Scholarship Awards
The student photographs keep getting better and better each year for the Scholarship Contest, with a total of 17 scholarships awarded this year. Please take a moment to visit our Scholarship Website: www.westonscholarship.org to see all of the 2008 Winners!

August: Larry Padgett from The Center for Fine Art Photography asked Kim to jury The Artful Nude Exhibition where he judged 1500 images and picked 55. I will say that when it got down to 70 images it was very difficult for him to keep discarding. The collection of winners can be seen on their website along with the current show and all of their previous exhibitions. Be sure to take some time to see the amazing amount of great work from this show and the others he has posted. We were invited to come out to Fort Collins for the
opening night and in conjunction with the opening we taught a weekend workshop “The Artful Nude”. It was held at local artist Tony Gardner and his wife Valerie Martin’s home Lonehawk Ranch near Horsetooth Lake in the foothills of the Colorado Mountains. Valerie was the perfect hostess, letting the whole group invade her home while her husband Tony photographed for the first time in a long time. After we left Valerie informed us that Tony had resurrected his darkroom and is “in the saddle again!” Wow that is pretty special to be that inspired. So we wanted to thank everyone that came out to be with us, our hosts Tony and Valerie and especially Larry who brought us out to Colorado to meet all of you. We had a really wonderful time.

Carrie Leigh’s Nude Magazine
Kim has had a great time meeting and photographing with Carrie Leigh this past year, photographing with her here at Wildcat Hill and again in Los Angeles and getting to know her better. He has had the privilege to have been published in 4 of their issues. The latest issue coming out soon “Catching up with Kim Weston” in the Winter 2008 Issue. Together with
Carrie, Kim co judged their first annual photography contest. Judging 2 photography contests in one year! That was fun. We look forward to working together with her on future projects.
Thanks Carrie and Gary!

Whitespider.org came and interviewed Kim and you can see it online at http://whitespider.org/content/view/187/1/

September:
5th Annual Weston Scholarship Fine Print Auction
This year with more than 50 photographs to auction off, the auction was better than last year! It just keeps getting better every year. Thank you to all of the photographers who donated to this worthy cause. We could not do it with your support. And a big thanks to the supporters of this scholarship. You all just keep coming around and stepping up to the plate to help us with our mission. We are so grateful it’s hard to put into words. We are meeting in January to talk about our future plans with ideas about free student classes on things like: How to put a college portfolio together and how to spot your prints and how to hang a show. We would like to thank Don Anderson, Neil Shapiro, Reed Farrington and Lana Weeks for being on our board and helping with the awards ceremony and auction. A special thanks to Katherine Edison for her help on the scholarship auction this year. It was a pleasure to work with her and her enthusiasm. Thanks to Amy Essick, Frank, Molly Cybuck, Todd Farrington, Saundra Meyrose, scholarship winner -  Angelica Bongioanni and Robin Robinson for volunteering at the auction, A Moveable Feast for catering and to the incoming sophomores from Stanford University. And a big thanks to the Carmel Art Association for donating their lovely gallery.

October:
Photographs: "In Conversation with Robinson Jeffers”
This October was a big month for Robinson Jeffers fans. The Big Read, a program from the National Endowment for the Arts, sponsored events all over Monterey County. During that time Kim and I were approached to curate a show at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel Ca. The theme was “In Conversation with Robinson Jeffers”. Local photographers were
picked and asked to submit 3 photographs, each with a line or a poem that corresponded with their photographs. One image and poem was selected for this group show. I believe 37 local artists were picked. This exercise of combining photography with poetry gave many of us a reason to go and read the poetry of Jeffers. Something we hadn’t done for a long time, if ever in the past. This was the intent of The Big Read, to stimulate reading in our society. Well it worked! The show was beautiful; National Endowment for the Arts Literature Specialist Erika Koss and local Poet Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts read the poetry of Robinson Jeffers and live Celtic music played during the reception. I hope you got a chance to see it; the opening was a magical interaction of local people coming together. One of the best attended shows to be at the Center in a long while. Nobody wanted to leave that evening. It was also a fundraiser, helping the much needed establishment an opportunity to raise some funds for operation. I believe the event was very successful and many prints were sold and money was donated back to the Center. Thank you to the CPA board for allowing us to be a part in bringing the community back together in such a heartfelt way.

October:
In October we hosted 2 more fundraisers for our
Weston Photography Scholarship Fund:

A Day with Kim Weston
This event was spent at Wildcat Hill with an introduction to the Photography of the Weston's, including a tour of Edward Weston's home and studio, a picnic lunch and a tour of Point Lobos with local Poet Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts reading the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. It was a magical afternoon being in Point Lobos listening to Elliot read Jeffers poetry. Thanks
to all that attended and thanks to Elliot!

An Intimate Dinner with Edward Weston and Robinson Jeffers
After the day event we hosted an Intimate Dinner at Edward Weston's Wildcat Canyon home. A Moveable Feast catered a four course gourmet dinner with wine to match. Local poet Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts read from Edward Weston's Daybooks and the poetry of Robinson Jeffers during the break between each course. To sit in the house and listen to the poetry was brilliant, moving and inspiring! After dinner we moved out to sit in the patio in front of the fire to listen to Elliot read. Michael Jones read his favorite Jeffers poem too. Thanks again to Michael and Brendan Jones of A Moveable Feast and to Elliot too! We appreciate your support. It was a memorable evening. All proceeds for both events went directly to the Weston Scholarship Fund.

November:
Connected Photographer Randy Efros from Phoenix arranged for Kim to go to the Phoenix Art Museum to speak about his grandfather’s Edward Weston’s exhibition “Mexico”. He gave an informal gallery talk that was well attended and told stories about the photographs. The next evening he gave a PowerPoint presentation at the Circles Speaker Program (Phoenix Art Museum) about his own personal journey back to Oaxaca Mexico,” Kim Weston: A Grandson’s Journey” and why he decided to go there. Kim was well received and later in the trip photographed with Randy and his friends and came home with some amazing new images!
Thanks Randy!

Thank you!
We met a lot of new people and deepened many of our friendships. It was another pretty special year for us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Thank you for all of your wonderful Christmas and New Year cards.

Happy New Year 2009! May this year bless you as it has us!

Sincerely Gina, Kim and Zach