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.

The actual installation at YOUNGPROJECTS

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

“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.

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.

A 19-year old patient has just been diagnosed with XDR-TB – the form of tuberculosis that is resistant to all available medication. The doctors just found out he can not be treated. The patient’s mother has died of TB and his brother is also sick with a drug resistant form of the bacteria. He however responds to some of the medication and is recovering. Nukus, Uzbekistan.

MSF psychologist conducting a meditation session for MDR-TB patients in a Nukus TB hospital. Uzbekistan.

Destroyed and abandoned factory. Grozny, Chechnya Russia.

Doctor checks Andrei for signs of life and finds none. A drug user for many years, he died at the age 46 from HIV-associated drug-related tuberculosis. He had checked himself into the hospital three days earlier.

Empty hospital bed in Nazran, Ingushetia Russia.

Laundry worker next to her washing mashine – she says its as old as she is. As far as she knows, its been in the tuberculosis clinic since 1984. Donetsk, Ukraine.

Diana has advanced MDR-TB. She is too frail to play table tennis, as are most of her fellow patients at the hospital. Nukus, Uzbekistan.

A hospital room for five male mdr-tb patients in Nukus TB hospital. Uzbekistan.

Kolya, 31, who is living with HIV, contracted tuberculosis in prison. Mariupol, Ukraine.

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.

Harley Victoria Weir is a 22-year-old fine art graduate of Central Saint Martins, and a regular contributor to Vice Magazine and Citizen K.

This shoot aptly named “Cat Power” is an editorial spread for TEST Magazine. Harley explains, “we ended up using two of the neighbor’s cats who were lovely but very shy and spent the entire shoot hidden under the sofa. So we ended up with very little presence of cats in the shoot but I suppose too much of a good thing is bad anyway.” See more of Weir’s work here and check our more of the spread at TEST Magazine.

All photos © Lynda Churilla. Above: Longboard Afternoon, Ditch Plains, 2010

Lynda Churilla’s atmospheric black and white photographs invoke thoughts of endless summers—a perfect salve for the January cold enveloping most of the country. Made in locales like Islamorada, Florida and Montauk, New York, where sun and waves are often the primary concerns of the day, her images show the beauty and energy of simpler pursuits. Churilla is exhibiting her work through February 20, 2011 at Robin Rice Gallery in New York City.

Christian and Nathan Fletcher, Islamorada, 1995

Girl in Water, 1996

Buckham Twins, Chateau Marmont, 1996

Back Flip, SCYC, 2000

This image is part of a series on the refugee farmers and their families living and working under the “New Roots for Refugees” program in downtown Kansas City, Kansas.  The program was designed to help mostly female refugees from all over the world put down, literally, “new roots” in Kansas City. As a refugee coming to a new country, they often do not know the language yet, but have the skills to farm and thus have a way to become integrated into their new community and the local economy, one crop at a time.

New York City based photographer Sara Forrest shoots lifestyle, fitness and documentary photography.  She recently returned from Ethiopia, where she spent three weeks covering stories about women suffering from obstetric fistula. To see more of her work click here.