cool-down

Tonight SF Camerawork offered a much-appreciated opportunity to see all three of their summer exhibitions before they close this weekend in the form of a "cool-down" party, and I walked over right after work to catch myself up.  In the front room: winners of the 2009 James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography Doris Jew Conrath and Jim Stone.  Both photographers are California-born and work with color photography, but then their techniques diverge.  Conrath digitally composes panoramas of some of suburbia's more surreal drive-up coffee stands so seamlessly that I didn't at first realize I was looking at all four sides of the building at once, while Stone takes large-scale portraits of Americans that despite their oversize dimensions nevertheless managed to startle me with their empathy.  Intimacy is a theme in the gallery's second room as well, where the central column is pinned floor-to-ceiling with candid black-and-white photos from SF's Cutter Photozine to mimic the process its editors use to lay out an issue.  Select images are blown up larger on the surrounding walls, and I was particularly struck by a picture of a couple sitting in a darkened kitchen while fireworks explode in the sky right outside their window.  Amos Mac's photo pictured above is another stand-out.  Finally, Camerawork's back room contains the results of their "Ersatz" project in which the curators distributed an open call for mail art and then put the pieces on display exactly as they came in.  The result is a mesmerizing collage of scraps, pictures, and even a star map.  The works have also been collected into a beautiful book you can preview here, but I highly recommend seeing everything in person.  If you have the time do rush over there before Saturday.