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…)

© Henry Jacobson. Musicians gather at an impromptu jam around a bonfire at Storyhill Music Festival in northern Minnesota.

Photographers and filmmakers Sara Terry (director) and Henry Jacobson (cinematographer) are currently at work on a feature length documentary, FOLK, that follows several singer-songwriters as they travel the United States, sharing their music with fans and fellow musicians. The film, which is currently in post-production, is “part music documentary and part road trip movie,” Terry writes in a description of the film. “FOLK lets our characters’ lives and their songs do what singer-songwriters have always done: amplify the themes that resonate across our cultural landscape—whether it’s re-defining success in the face of failure, trying to find wholeness in an increasingly fragmented world, or struggling to make sense of the trials and triumphs that make us all so human.”

This is the second documentary from Terry and Jacobson. Their award-winning first film, Fambul Tok, told the story of a grassroots organization promoting healing and reconciliation in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

Related: To Forgive, Not Forget: Sara Terry’s New Film Fambul Tok

© ACME Photo, 1944.

“Grunts” is military vernacular for United States Army or Marine foot soldiers who make up the bulk of the armed services. Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Panopticon Gallery presents “Grunts: The G.I. Experience” curated by Jim Fitts from December 7, 2011 – January 10, 2012.  This exhibition features images from the war in Korea by Harold Feinstein alongside images by Robert Capa and Press photographs from WWII.

Images in “Grunts” are not repeatedly produced heroic propaganda. Instead, they are “personal and very human,” says curator Jim Fitts, who hopes viewers will gain a better understanding and appreciation of the courageous soldiers. Photographs on display in this exhibition are courtesy Panopticon Gallery and Lee Gallery.

All photos © Misha Friedman

Misha Friedman has been photographing humanitarian crises around the world, with a recent focus on documenting the tuberculosis epidemic in the former Soviet Union. The number of patients with non-treatable forms–called XDR or extensively drug-resistant TB–is growing steadily in that part of the world because of lack of treatment and education. “[Those] who become sick are stigmatized, relatives turn away, neighbors stop speaking,” Friedman explains. “They spend months in prison-like clinics, where equipment is outdated and medical and nursing staff are just as poor as their patients. Many leave without finishing their treatment only to return over and over again.” These images were taken during several trips to hospitals in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Russia.  Friedman says it was emotionally draining to witness the suffering and inadequate treatment, then leave the hospitals and see how governments spend so lavishly on other things, such as a sports stadium or a new limousine for the local public health official. Friedman has collaborated on the project with NGOs including Doctors Without Borders, World Health Organization, and the Institute of Modern Russia. His goal is to draw attention to the TB epidemic, which is now killing thousands of people–and not just in the  developing world.

Above: A 37-year old patient outside the palliative ward for terminally ill showing his lunch – that’s the only food he can afford on his pension.

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During the 1950s, Martin Karplus captured the lush hues of the Southwest’s culture and landscapes during his travels there as a post-doctorate fellow. Kodachrome may be gone, but its vivid color qualities lives on through his works which will be exhibited in Stoneham Gallery of the Griffin Museum from Jan.–Feb. 2012, as well as in three additional venues during the next two years featuring different bodies of work. Karplus is currently a Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and Biophysics at Harvard and showed his work as a participant at this year’s Photolucida in Portland, Oregon.

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