© Bastienne Schmidt.

Bastienne Schmidt uses self-portraits to explore female gender identity in popular culture. She photographs herself in the role of a “housewife,” challenging our visions of a domestic utopia by re-staging many disconcertingly familiar scenarios and circumstances. Working in her own home environment of Long Island, Schmidt explores suburban fragmentation and loneliness with the presentation of her housewife character as a wandering, rootless protagonist.

This exhibition was on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography in the fall of 2010 and is currently available as a traveling exhibition organized by SMP.  Her book “Home Stills” was recently released by Jovis Press. -courtesy Southeast Museum.

Related Stories in PDN: Bastienne Schmidt’s Home Stills

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© Maria Morina

Olga Kravets, Maria Morina and Oksana Yushko have been working on “Grozny: Nine Cities” for more than two years. Inspired by Thornton Wilder’s book Theophilus North, they are exploring specific aspects of the aftermath of two wars in Chechnya via its capital, Grozny, considering this an important fabric of the culture. With money recently raised through a campaign on Emphasis.org they will finish the project within the year and move on to the production of a Web documentary and book.

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All photos © Rob Tringali. Above: Wes Welker #83 of the New England Patriots takes a hit from  Aaron Ross #31 of the New York Giants during the game during Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 5, 2012.

Photographer Rob Tringali was in Indianapolis last night covering Superbowl 46 between the New York Giants and New England Patriots for ESPN. It was his 23rd superbowl. Tringali  says, “I’ve been fortunate to be hired by clients to cover these wonderful events. It’s a combination of experience, instinct and a touch of luck that puts you in a position to make beautiful images. The challenge is to just make sure you get it in focus when it happens in front of you.”

Related Article: Pro-Football Photographer David Eulitt on Covering NFL Games.

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All Photos © Kevin Cooley.

Skyward  is Kevin Cooley’s new video installation project portraying Los Angeles’ manufactured landscape and its relationship to the natural world. Presented as a projection on the ceiling, the work is a metaphysical gaze skyward – past the gridlock of street-level to the pristine blue sky promising freedom and limitless possibility.

Shot entirely in L.A. County, the work is comprised of hundreds of individual shots, presented in one continuous sequence. Cooley explains the visual narrative: ”We begin downtown near Bunker Hill and make stops through various parts of the city. Flurries of overlapping flight paths, of birds, helicopters and more, are punctuated by the brief appearance of iconic southern California structural elements such as freeway interchanges and rows of palm trees and we discover interdependent ecosystems largely overlooked in everyday life.” Cooley’s installation is on view  at YOUNGPROJECTS, a contemporary gallery for moving images, until March 9, 2012. (more…)

© Monika Sziladi, courtesy Klompching Gallery. Untitled (Ribs) 2010.

KLOMPCHING GALLERY has brought to New York, The Architecture of Space, originally curated for and enthusiastically received at the inaugural Flash Forward Festival in Toronto (October, 2010). This is an exhibition of contemporary photography exploring the perception and representation of space—the collapse between public and private, it’s abstract form and its role as metaphor. Artists’ reception is on February 2, 6pm—9pm and the exhibition continues through to March 2, 2012.