Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Random Photographs and Moving Ahead With Rockaways

"Elvie", Rockaway Park, NYC. 2004. Juliana Beasley



Dear Friends,

Much has been happening in my own life that has kept me away from my blogging commitments. I have been working on a short story about my experience out in the Rockaways and revolves around 3 central characters-- one myself.

My plan is to share it to you in 4 paragraph block entries with photographs included. That's the plan!

I hope that I will finish it soon or at least in 2 months.

I am slowly coming out of hibernation and looking forward to the spring.



"Butch's Hair", Rockaway Park, NYC, 2003. Juliana Beasley



"Irish Venetian Blinds", Rockaways Park, NYC. 2008. Juliana Beasley



The good news is that I have found a wonderful book designer for my Rockaway book dummy. Julia Braun who is incredibly talented and so far the joint effort and her savvy experience is coming together. We share notes and ideas on Skype and converse over two time zones. I am lucky to have her on board. And as you can imagine, I am excited to have the six years of hard and happy work in my hands.

I am posting some photographs that I found amongst my scans from the past. They are not meant necessarily for the book but just simply for feedback.

Best wishes!
Yours,
Juliana

Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year 2011!

Dear Readers,

I wish you a very Happy New Year!

One of my resolutions is more photographs taken and more words written! I hope to share more with you this year than last.

"New Year's Eve at the Palm Gardens", Rockaway Park, 2003. Juliana Beasley



Warm wishes!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Iron Worker's Christmas

It's been a while since I've been out to my second home in the Rockaways. I miss it. Now that it is Christmas time, I am looking for to getting out there and shooting and meeting up with old friends. The cold air reminds me of several winter out there, bundled up and hoping for a snow storm.

Here is a photo I took with my Mamiya 645. This photo reminds me of the laid back feeling I have when I get out there, as well as feeling like I have gone back to another place and time when NYC was not so homegenous. Oh, I miss ya'!!!


And I can't wait to see Butchie! 


"Iron Worker's Christmas", Rockaway Park, 2009. Juliana Beasley

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

This Time in America Group Show/ Miami Basel

Hi All!

Here is the info for the show that I will be in. The opening is December 2nd at Gallery ID in the Wynwood District. The address is 2531 NW 2 Avenue in Miami! The opening starts at 7:30pm and ends at 11pm. I am thrilled to be a part of the show.

I would love to meet you during the event and hope I will see you down at the opening and also at  Basel! Please, let me know if you are showing any work down there.

Here is the info:


This Time in America: Part I
Curators Giselle DeVera and Brenda Ann Kenneally
November 11, 2010 – Gallery I/D is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, This Time in America:

Photographers:

Juliana Beasley
Nina Berman
Sean Hemmerle
Tim Hetherington
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Gillian Laub
Randal Levenson
Emily Schiffer

Part 1. The two-part series, co-curated by renowned photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally, highlights
photographers who have turned their lenses on America. Part 1, which runs concurrently with Art Basel
from December 2nd to January 15th, features award-winning photographers and photojournalists who
captured diverse segments of American society. What they saw – a New York community of impoverished
social outcasts, cowboys and urbanites, segregation alive and well in America, U.S. soldiers in slumber
between wartime activities, the colorful frenzy of stock market charts and more – remind us not only of
the unique nature of America, but of our fluctuating and transformative place in the civilized world.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Things Fall Apart at Pool Gallery in Berlin!

Hello All!

I want to announce the opening of the show "Things Fall Apart" at Pool Gallery in Berlin.

I am proud to be of a part a show with so many great American women photographers. It is truly an honor. And an honor to be in a show curated by Amy Stein. Here is the press release! If you are in the neighborhood, please check it and take some snaps of the opening night or of yourself in your favorite piece of lingerie.

The show includes the work of Lisa Kereszi , Stacy Mehrfar , Justine Reyes, Robin Schwartz , Zoe Strauss and Amy Stein . And me too.


Miss Stein and Miss Reyes will be in attendance for the vernissage!



There is one battle, and it is epic. It is the only
battle there has ever been; it is the only battle
there ever will be. It has consumed every last
human being that has ever lived; it is the battle
between Order and Chaos.
Grounded in faith, it is a holy war. Yes, it is the
fight for everything we believe in; the fight for
everything we are; the fight for a reason to get out
of bed in the morning.
Humans naturally side with order, likening it to
survival, yearning for predictability and control.
Over the millennia, we have come up with a range
of ammunition against the great Evil, the great
Darkness - the Chaos. Politics, alien abductions,
savings accounts, religion,
environmental protection, space shuttle
expeditions, hollywood fame, nuclear bombs - it
is a seemingly never-ending roster of human
creations, ideas, practices and bad habits that,
in essence, address this single and only conflict,
attempting to construct a semblance of
permanent order, to grasp some comfort and
stability amidst the chaos.
THINGS FALL APART, curated by American
photographer and pool gallery artist Amy Stein,
presents us with a wise, yet rather distressing,
understanding. It is a coming to terms with our
collective sentence, the hand we, humans, were
dealt; it is the realization that, at the end of the
proverbial day, the chaos prevails.
Stein has selected the works of seven American
female photographers; works that approach this
grand conflict from a humanistic and personal
standpoint. These artists dissect the human
desire to construct our systems of order, and
accentuate the inevitable disillusionment when
© Robin Schwartz
those very systems collapse. The works are more than a record of decay - they are, rather, an examination of loss, as the transition
from the ephemeral to the immutable reveals a cruel affirmation of our temporal existence.
This selection of works simultaneously tells one story: the story of any one life. Lisa Kereszi‘s works serve to highlight the beginning,
the plan-making that excites us in our naive youth and adolescence; Stacy Mehrfar continues from there, capturing the foundationlaying
and construction of our aspirations; Amy Stein‘s own works capture that dreaded moment, that turning point, when chaos first
comes calling, casting our plans off course; the descent from thereon is slow and spiked with flusters, trips and falls apart - a process
illustrated by the works of Justine Reyes, Juliana Beasley and Zoe Strauss; and finally, Robin Schwartz‘ Dead Deer is the summation
of the grand arc, a totem for the constant cycle of dissolution and change in the natural world.
Structuring all facets of our existence is an effort that requires trust in these structures‘ continuation; this trust forms the foundation
of faith. This faith surpasses religious faith; it is the faith that every human being requires to go on living, the most basic and inherent
faith - the faith that what we‘re doing, what we are, is not for nothing. It is the faith that gives us the stamina to go on fighting against
the Chaos.
THINGS FALL APART is Amy Stein‘s first curatorial project at pool gallery, where her work has been exhibited since 2008. She lives
and works in New York, NY.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Madeleine and Her Children in Brazil

                                Madeleine and Her Children, Brazil, July 2010. Juliana Beasley


I approach Madeleine one morning when I see her sitting at Frutti's, the local gringo caffe on the main street in town.

The first time, I saw her in white, she was standing, sandwhiched between her two children, Francois and Genievieve. We are all waiting on lines to see the healer. She like all of us are here on some quest, some kind of medical intervention to cure our souls whether it be of some physical, mental, or spiritual malady. We are basking in the reflection of the white clothes. We have come from all over the world with a luggage full of white clothes and with the hope to be healed.

If there is anything to be said on the subject of aura's, she radiates the colors of innocence, calm and purity that you only see in some children. Indeed, she is small in stature... like me, small. And I immediately gravitate towards her, I can feel a direct pull moving me in her direction.

I want to meet her and I want to photograph her during my three week stay.

This is the photograph I took of her.

When I corresponded with her recently via e-mail, she told me that she still remembers me standing there with my camera in hand. She said, I appeared vulnerable. And I was. I was vulnerable to all that is out of our control. I was vulnerable the moment. Maybe I was just vulnerable to change.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Looking for Louise. Where are You?

Louise in White #1, Brazil, 2010, Juliana Beasley



Hello Louise,

I hope you don't mind, but I wanted you to see this photograph of yourself from Brazil. Please, contact me as soon as possible with your e-mail address.

I took this photo in Brazil when I went to see a healer this summer for emotional and mental cleansing. I will return. There are other portraits that I have shot and stories to be written but, for now will remain unpublished on my blog.

I look forward to sharing them.

We all came to be healed, whether it was of physical, mental or spiritual affliction. Some of our dreams will come true. And some won't. I'm ready.

I photographed her in natural light... this is new for me and I can't wait to do more!