All photos © Sharon Harper/Courtesy of Galerie Roepke, Cologne and Rick Wester Fine Art, New York City. Above: Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 2. November 8, 2003. Greensboro, North Carolina.

NASA says that its twin probes are scheduled to arrive on the moon New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The data they collect may solve some of the mystery that remains about the lunar surface. The mission’s chief scientist, Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the AP: ”We actually know more about Mars … than we do about our own moon.”

For her series Moon Studies and Star Scratches,  Sharon Harper photographed the moon over a period of days, weeks and months on a single sheet of film.  Harper says the camera is “a metaphor for the pervasive presence of technology within the landscape, a presence that often interrupts our experience of the natural world. The camera here, however, creates possibilities for re-interpreting contemporary experience as it mediates and records, generating images that cannot be seen without it. In the images from the series…the moon links our understanding of time in terms of a monthly calendar with a celestial realm where time is measured in light years.” Moon Studies and Star Scratches is featured in Daylight Magazine’s current issue, Cosmos. Harper’s newer series, Sun/Moon (Trying to See through a Telescope), is currently on view at Galerie Roepke in Cologne through January 21st.

Wishing you all new perspectives for 2012.

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All photos © Jason Houston.

These still images are from the filming of Picture the Leviathan, a documentary film by Jason Houston and Hal Clifford scheduled for completion in May 2012. Picture the Leviathan shows the passion and effort James Prosek puts into making his extraordinary watercolor portraits. The film’s theme—that art makes a difference—is supported by three legs: The quest inherent in Prosek’s journeys; the making of the art; and Prosek’s deeply humble, almost mystical relationship to other species.

Prosek paints in the tradition of 19th-century naturalists who catalogued the world as it was discovered—but he paints creatures that are vanishing. It’s a truism that in order to care for something you first must know it. And we don’t know the once-dominant, majestic creatures of the Atlantic, some of which humans are fishing toward extinction. Facts about the oceans’ decline pile up like sand, with little effect on human behavior. This is where art comes in. Prosek is on a quest to paint approximately 40 Atlantic fish species that are significant to humans—and paint them from life, full-size, after seeing them [in their natural habitat]. Nobody has ever tried to do this—after all, it’s challenging to observe some of these fish in [nature]. His quest takes him stalking swordfish off Nova Scotia; night fishing for deep-water cod; to the Bahamas for giant grouper; to the Cape Verde Islands to see a 900-pound blue marlin. He believes he must be there—right there—when a true, live, leviathan rises from the deep.

The film is intended to help, in a small way, shift the culture by altering the viewer’s perception of our relationship to fish and oceans. Because Picture the Leviathan is part of a larger media suite—the film documents the creation of a body of art that will form the basis for a 2012 book and art exhibit—it will both expand upon and amplify James’s work and that work’s implicit messages about our relationship to the ocean and its megafauna.

— Text courtesy of Jason Houston.

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© Joshua Paul

SKI Magazine sent Joshua Paul to shoot an assignment at the ski resort Krasnaya Polyana in the Caucasus Mountains  when it was mentioned as a prospective site for the 2014 Olympic Games. What he found was a desolate mountain lacking a village, snow, skiers or a proper chair lift. He explained, “As I wandered around day after day, the assignment became more and more difficult. The town was very poor and undeveloped, no one would agree to let me take a portrait, and I couldn’t find a place to eat, drink, or show what else this place had to offer. On the last day, after barely shooting 20 rolls of 120 film, a giant man walked over holding a vintage Russian version of a Speed Graphic camera and a little monkey on his shoulder. He asked, “Photo?” I asked back, “Photo?” The little monkey quickly jumped off his back, turned to me and I shot this frame. This single image saved my otherwise disastrous shoot, and helped win SKI Magazine, Time Inc.’s Magazine of the year.

All photos © Rod Morata.

Most photographers bring their cameras with them everywhere they go, so a unique moment or interesting discovery doesn’t go undocumented. Rod Morata, a Brooklyn-based editorial photographer, decided to take this idea one step further and commit to taking at least one photo each day of the year. Morata says, “In 2011, I started a 365/photo-a-day project for the first time in years and brought a camera with me everywhere I went to document everyday [life].  I’ve seen a lot of 365 projects in the past and thought it would be a great photo exercise to start one of my own. I was curious to see what I would come up with and what a year of my life would look like in pictures. Generally, I take portraits and photograph in a more controlled environment. This was a good opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone and record interesting things I see but usually don’t photograph.”

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All Photos © Alyson Aliano

Alyson Aliano’s project “Real Mother” explores what it means to be a mother. She says, “I started the moms project when I was a stepmother to twins. People would continually ask, ‘Aren’t you going to have children? Don’t you want to have your own children? When are you going to have your own children?’ The implication was that as a stepparent, I wasn’t a ‘real’ parent. At the time, I did all the things ‘real’ parents did: I took the kids to the doctor, went to soccer games, organized play-dates, birthday parties, summer camp and saved for college. My experience was a roller coaster ride: amazing, scary and exhilarating. I began to think about what parenting and motherhood were all about. I looked to other women to share their experiences and I photographed all types of moms: biological, step, lesbian and adoptive mothers. These women shared their hopes, fears, questions and experiences with me.”

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