Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tis' the Season


Merry Christmas from New York City!
I couldn't resist braving the storm to capture this image of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Enjoy!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Support SUN Magazine


The SUN Magazine is having a great holiday offer. Click here to view the offer. I look forward to my SUN's arrival every month and was honored to have two photographs featured this past year in their magazine. You can still save 30% (until 1/15/10) and your first issue will be February 2010 (my first SUN cover!!!)

Monday, November 30, 2009

Mama Kati



I'm Pregnant! Two months to go! I am starting to slow down and take less assignments as I reach the end of my pregnancy. I will start back up in the spring/summer with Pedagogy of Photography and other fine art, documentary and commissioned projects so feel free to contact me to schedule sessions. Until then, I am going nurture this growing belly and hibernate with my beautiful baby boy!

Monday, November 9, 2009

Patricia Lay-Dorsey


Photograph by Patricia Lay-Dorsey

A beautiful reflective photo essay is featured on the New York Times Lens Blog today by a dear friend and photographer Patricia Lay-Dorsey whom I met at the Mary Ellen Mark Workshop at the Center for Photography at Woodstock last summer. We have kept in touch since and edited each others work. So proud of her and her inspiring work!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

American Photography 25

If you are in New York next week come celebrate the publication of American 25. RSVP here.



As mentioned in a previous blog post in April, 3 of my images taken on assignment at the Eddie Adams Workshop last October were selected by American Photography as the best photographs of 2008. 171 images were chosen from a record-breaking 10,100 submitted. The following 3 winning images can be viewed online here



Looking In: Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans,’


Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with that little camera that he raises and snaps with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world. To Robert Frank I now give this message: You got eyes. -Jack Kerouac, from the Introduction to The Americans

I had the honor of not only viewing the inspiration exhibit Looking In: Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans,’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but meeting the charming photographer and living legend Robert Frank himself, hearing him speak about his journey as a foreigner photographing America in the height of the Cold War. As a photographer and educator, at a time when photography legends are leaving us and digital photography has antiquated techniques we used just a few years ago, it was a blessing to be present at such a unique and memorable event celebrating an evolutionary artist and witnessing this seminal body of work.

The exhibit can be viewed from September 22, 2009-January 3, 2010 at the MET.

From the MET website,

This exhibition celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Americans, Robert Frank’s influential suite of black-and-white photographs made on a cross-country road trip in 1955–56. Although Frank’s depiction of American life was criticized when the book was released in the U.S. in 1959, it soon became recognized as a masterpiece of street photography. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank is considered one of the great living masters of photography. The exhibition features all 83 photographs published in The Americans and will be the first time that this body of work is presented to a New York audience. In addition, the exhibition includes contact sheets that Frank used to create the book; earlier photographs made in Europe, Peru, and New York; a short film by the artist on his life; and his later re-use of iconic images from the series.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Sun Magazine




Thrilled to be published in the SUN magazine again in the October 2009 publication. I took the above photograph in Prince Edward Island in the summer of 2001 with Tri-X 400 film and self printed it in the darkroom.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Peace Corps Fellows Times

The last few months have been full of adventures between moving and photographing in Peru, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. Upon return, I received the Peace Corps Fellows Times published by Teachers College, Columbia University featuring my recent POP work. This publication was sent to every Title 1 public school in NYC. To view the PDF of Summer 2009 publication click here.




Monday, August 10, 2009

Impact

We are moving which means packing which means procrastinating! While moving moving, packing, procrastinating, I found this article that Teachers College Office of Development wrote about my work. Enjoy!



Book Cover




The Student Press Initiative published a book, Triumphant Moments: Reflections on Peace Corps Fellows' First Years of Teaching. They selected an image from my POP project, Shout out for Peace, for the cover. To see the original and final of this image, click here

Sunday, August 9, 2009

New Orleans Photo Alliance Exhibit Opening


photo by Morgan Sasser

Two of my photographs taken in Lima, Peru (2002) and Baltimore, Maryland (2007) are on exhibit from Aug 6 - September 20, 2009 as part of the ‘Caliente/Hot’ exhibit at the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, 1111 Saint Mary Street, New Orleans, LA 70130

The juror, José Torres-Tama, esteemed visual/performance artist and writer, noted that the submissions organically fell in to three distinct categories of heat: Landscape, Bodies and Surreal.

Great photographers possess the uncanny ability to frame our reality with their keen eyes and capture the sublime characteristics of everyday life, or simply focus their lens on what many of us may neglect to observe. While some interpretations of the theme were more understated, most submissions for Caliente / Hot had plenty of calor (heat) and literal fire in them, and there were three distinct categories of images: landscapes, bodies, and the surreal.

From an abundance of strong entries, the photos selected for this exhibit raised my aesthetic temperature gauge the most, and my choices were initially based on a visceral reaction to each file I opened, as a curious curator in search of picante pictures. Once I narrowed my selections, I had to literally go through two additional editing sessions to arrive at this final collection of 33 photos. Some works inhabit a general spirit of mercury-rising levels with provocative and intense imagery while others communicate a cool fever and mysterious danger.

---José Torres-Tama

Friday, August 7, 2009

POP & LiFE


During the 2007-2008 school year Pedagogy of Photography collaborated with LiFE (Linking Food and the Environment) to create photography, literacy and technology projects based on LiFE's Choice, Control and Change curriculum.

Last August I did a presentation educating teachers how to link photography, literacy and the LiFe Curriculum at the Rethinking Food, Health, and the Environment: Making Learning Connections, The Center for Ecoliteracy and Teachers College Columbia University Professional Development Institute.

This summer the Director of the LiFE program has recruited the same POP students who participated in the CCC curriculum to test out LiFESim to try out the game and provide feedback about what they think about the game's design.

The LiFE Program is working with a computer game design firm to develop an interactive computer game to help middle school-aged children make healthier food choices. The game - LiFESim - is based on their Choice, Control, and Change curriculum module which focuses on making students competent navigators of our complex food and activity environment and which has been found successful in changing behaviors.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Permanent POP exhibit at TC, Columbia University


Pedagogy of Photography (POP) is honored that OTE, the Office of Teacher Education & School Based Support Services purchased POP prints for a permanent exhibit at Teachers College, Columbia University. The permanent exhibit will go up in the fall and be located at

400 Russell Hall
525 W 120th Street
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York, New York 10027-6696

What is OTE?

Our purpose is to provide information, support and resources to faculty and students engaged in Professional Education Programs that lead to initial and professional certification.

Our aim is also to work in partnership with faculty colleagues to address program, practice, research and policy issues relevant to the preparation of teachers and other educational specialists.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

POP featured on AfterED TV

View the Pedagogy of Photography video produced by Mary Kate Pappas with After Ed TV. After Ed TV is a web-based video channel produced by EdLab at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Check out the video below, on YouTube here or on After Ed TV, featured on the After Ed Update 7.22.09

Friday, July 17, 2009

The New York Times Lens Blog




Delighted to be featured in this article (click on article to view it) in the New York Times Lens Blog about the exhibit at Umbrella Arts Gallery. My photograph is the last image.

About Lens

Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web.




There we sleep, dream, play and mate. There we spend a significant portion of life and often that’s where we are when it ends.

“Bed,” on display through Saturday at Umbrella Arts in the East Village, features 45 pictures by photographers who answered the gallery’s call to submit works uncovering the theme.

There are photographs of coffee-stained linens, pillow talk, pornography and an abandoned prison cell housing the rusty frame of a bunk bed. One photograph (”Naipes,” by Katie DelaVaughn) captures a boy shuffling a deck of cards while a set of hands points a revolver in the foreground. Another image (“Green,” by Dorothy O’Connor) is reminiscent of a Henri Rousseau painting, with a young dreamer on a bed of grass surrounded by growing vines.

“We do everything in bed,” said Harvey Stein, a photographer, a teacher at the International Center of Photography and the curator of the show. “I wanted to bring the bed from under the radar to our attention in a fun way, in a provocative way.”

Mr. Stein said he was inspired to produce the show after being captivated by one of his student’s photographs of an empty, unmade bed next to a window. “It’s around us and we ignore it and other people have made it the subject of their work,” he said, citing well-known pictures by Elliott Erwitt, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, and William Eggleston that included beds. Asked about his selection criteria, he said, “I didn’t want people just lying in bed.”

Mr. Stein plans to publish a book on the topic. Because of the number of submissions, a sequel is also being planned for next year.

Monday, July 6, 2009

POP in the Manhattan Times




Here's what the article says...

Manhattan Times
July 2, 2009

Artist: Katie DelaVaughn
Title: “Inwood POP: Portraits and Poetry” (2009)
Exhibited: Inwood storefronts for as long as the proprietors choose to keep them up.

If you live or have been to Inwood recently, you’ve had to have seen them: adorable portraits of children, displayed in store windows all along Broadway and beyond. They’re part of a series called “Inwood POP: Portraits and Poetry” created by Bronx Artist Katie DelaVaughn. The kids are from Amistad Dual Language School on Broadway and W. 204th Street. The POP in the title stands for Pedagogy of Photography, which is a literacy and community service learning program created by DelaVaughn and implemented all over the country over the past 10 years. DelaVaughn spent six months with the Amistad students, starting in January. The kids were photographed at their favorite places in the neighborhood and then went to town on DelaVaughn’s prints with Sharpie markers, writing poetry about the significance of their favorite place in Spanish or English. Some favorite places include John’s Doo-Wop Deli, Subway (the sandwich restaurant) the Dyckman Dominican Bakery and Dunkin Donuts.

“Through this project students brought their home and community lives into the classroom and then returned their portraits and poetry to their community exhibiting their artwork at the various locations selected in the store windows if the store permitted,” DelaVaughn said in response to e-mailed questions. Over 100 portraits are out there in the neighborhood.

“I believe this type of project praises youth voice and language diversity, instills community pride, and supports and gives thanks to local neighborhood shops and organizations,” DelaVaughn said.

“The students layered the photographs in Spanish and English with not only with their hopes, and dreams but intimate family and cultural memories. It is my hope that the stories and creativity of Inwood community’s diverse children and their special places within the community are valued.”

For more information visit
www.Katiedelavaughn.com
to contact the artist email or call
info@katiedelavaughn.com
415-246-8652

Daniel P. Bader

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Inwood POP:Portraits and Poetry Community Exhibit

After a successful school exhibit, the community exhibit is up. Come view 100 photographs layered with poetry at over 50 local businesses and organizations. This project has been brought full circle and the collaborative art has been returned to the places students felt connected to in their community and were photographed at. Come celebrate a community art project that praises youth voice and language diversity, instills community pride, and supports and gives thanks to local neighborhood shops and organizations.



Thursday, June 4, 2009

BED Exhibit at Umbrella Arts Gallery in NYC



Check out the Exhibit BED, Juried by Harvey Stein, at the Umbrella Arts Gallery in NYC. The opening is June 11 from 6-8 at 317 E. 9th Street. I have a photograph titled Naipes from Nicaragua in the exhibit of Victor playing cards on his bed in the group home at Si a La Vida, where he lives.

About the Exhibit

In BED we mate, procreate, migrate, elucidate, masticate, investigate, commiserate, hibernate, communicate, prevaricate, procrastinate, educate, ruminate. We all have BED but it’s mostly hidden away in a remote room upstairs in our houses or in the back room of our apartments. BED is rarely discussed, is mostly taken for granted, yet we use it more than anything else in the house, spending perhaps one third of our lifetime there.

BED is where we cavort, entertain and are entertained, where we eat, sleep, talk on the phone, read, watch TV, dream, hang out, escape to. We live much of our life there, mostly our private lives, including dying. In this exhibit personal, fun, beautiful startling photographs reveal the concept of BED.


About Umbrella Arts

Umbrella Arts features rare shows of extreme talent specializing in
painting, drawing and photography.

As long time members of the Lower Manhattan Community, owners
Mary Ann Fahey and Margaret Bodell, are committed to keeping the artistic spirit of the East Village alive as a place of discovery, movement and change and have long championed under-represented groups of cultural contributors.
Umbrella Arts hosts guest-curated exhibitions and arts organizations internationally.

Together Fahey and Bodell present new talent in an intimate art space, where curatorial experimentation creates exhibitions and events that share the work of today's artists.

Hours: Thursday through Saturday 1PM - 6PM and by appointment

New Orleans Photo Alliance Exhibit

Just saw a write up in the Fraction Magazine Blog about a show I will be in. Click on the link or read below.

It is also featured on the New Orleans Photo Alliance Website and New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau Website.

New Orleans Photo Alliance Presents:
“Forever Hold Your Peace”

The New Orleans Photo Alliance is pleased to present “Forever Hold Your Peace,” a group exhibition on the subject of weddings, juried by Sylvia Plachy. In curating this exhibition, Plachy, a Hungarian born, New York based, world-renowned photographer, selected 31 photographs depicting the traditions, customs, symbols and the rich human tableau surrounding wedding rituals. Featured artists include Marc Pagani, Evan Abramson, Katie DelaVaughn and Kate Nicholson. A slideshow of 50 additional images will run throughout the opening. “Forever Hold Your Peace” will be on view from June 5 through July 19, 2009 at the New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery, 1111 St. Mary St. New Orleans, LA 70130. The opening reception takes place on Saturday, June 6, from 6-9pm and Ms. Plachy will present a Gallery Talk at 7pm.

“I was looking for the same kind of pictures that I look for when I am photographing. I was looking for what would move me and for what I would never tire of looking. I wanted to see a burst of life palpable on a piece of paper.”- Sylvia Plachy


I feel honored that one of my favorite photographers Sylvia Plachy, whom I heard speak earlier this year at the NYPL through an Aperture Foundation event, selected all my entries to be in the exhibit. The following image, Alistandose, taken on my point and shoot camera in Altagracia, Nicaragua of Fatima's wedding will be framed on the gallery wall.



The following four images, also taken in Altagracia, Nicaragua, will be exhibited in the gallery slideshow.










The New Orleans Photo Alliance is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in 2006 whose mission is to encourage the understanding and appreciation of photography through exhibitions, opportunities and educational programs. PhotoNOLA is a month long celebration of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with galleries, museums and photographers citywide. The fourth annual series of events are currently being planned for December 2009.

For additional information on The New Orleans Photo Alliance please visit them online on their website: www.neworleansphotoalliance.org or at their blog www.neworleansphotoalliance.blogspot.com

A preview of the exhibition can be seen on their website: http://neworleansphotoalliance.org/exhibitions.php

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Inwood POP:Portraits and Poetry




Inwood POP: Portraits and Poetry is a part of Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Uptown Arts Stroll. Click here to link to our project.

Here's what the Uptown Arts Stroll says...

Wed 10 Jun 9:15 am – 10:30 am
Amistad Dual Language School • 4862 Broadway (W. 204th St.)
Exhibition Opening. Over one hundred photographs taken by Katie DelaVaughn and poems by 1st and 2nd grade students sharing their home and community - photographs will then be exhibited at the following locations: Broadway from Dyckman St. to W. 207St.; W. 207 St. from Sherman Ave. to Inwood Hill Park; Dyckman St. at Sherman Ave. to the Hudson River; and on the side streets of Vermilyea Ave., Academy St., Cummings St., and Seaman Ave. Info: 415.246.8652
Also visit: http://www.artstroll.com/venues-artists/#Amistad_Dual



Inwood POP: Portraits and Poetry featured in Manhattan Times

Here's what the Manhattan Times says...

Inwood POP: Portraits and Poetry opening exhibit to be held at the school auditorium at Amistad Dual Language School. Come view over 100 portraits layered with bilingual poetry revealing students favorite places in Inwood. Photography by Katie DelaVaughn. Poetry by Amistad 1st and 2nd grade students. Support provided by principal Miriam Pedraja and teachers Noah Ingber, Kristi Ley, Olga Ramos and Islandia Payano.
Wednesday, 10 June, 2009
09:15 AM - 10:30 AM

Cost:Free

Categories:

* Art Exhibit
* Children's
* Literary Event
* NoMAA Event

Monday, June 1, 2009

Platon




I had the great pleasure of attending Platon's workshop at the Center for Photography at Woodstock this past weekend. Fellow photographer Paul Dandurand took a Platonesque Portrait of me. Thanks Paul!

Platon is not only an incredible photographer but a thoughtful educator. Many of the lessons he taught I can bring back to my students in the classroom that educate about visual literacy and human relations. In each lesson, he emphasized the soulful connections you can make with your "subject". After observing many photographers who take take take, it was beautiful to see how Platon works,relating to and making a conscious effort to give back to everyone he photographs. Every photographer there was on fire watching Platon fill the room with his amazing energy demonstrating the beauty of a simple gesture. It was an intense emotional invaluable weekend.





Here is a little more info on Platon.
Platon, a NYC based photographer, born in London, attended the esteemed St. Martin’s School of Art before going on to study at the Royal College of Art, where he earned his BA and MA. He received British Vogue’s “Best Up-and-Coming Photographer” award in 1992 along with the opportunity to contribute images to the magazine. Since then Platon has continued to shoot for an impressive range of publications including The New York Times Magazine, Time, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. His advertising credits include memorable campaigns for Issey Miyake, Nike, Levi’s, Moschino, IBM, and Motorola. Platon has exhibited at Hamilton’s Gallery and in London, Spiral Hall in Tokyo, Leica Gallery in NYC and Japan, Saatchi Gallery, and the Carla Sozzani Gallery in Milan. Phaidon Press published his latest book, Platon’s Republic. His work is represented by the Art Department in NYC.

Here's what Liz Unterman, Education Coordinator at CPW, who took the photo of me taking the photo of Paul above :), has to say about the workshop on her blog,

So...we opened the workshop season with The Art & Craft of Portraiture taught by Platon. Great start to the season. Platon is energetic, intelligent and incredibly passionate for what he does...which is infectious. He carefully nursed every workshop participant through somewhat grueling exercises in "relating and connecting to your subject"--- which in the end brought every single person to a place of better understanding of who they are as artists. It was extremely enjoyable to watch from my end. People really came out of their shells and did an amazing job.

I have blogged about portraiture before and discussed the complicated discussions that exist around it. how much of a portrait is made with genuine "connection" and how much is a projection that we impose onto it? how telling can a photographic portrait really be on its own without other representation? what level of responsibility do we have as artists to properly represent a person? what is the definition of representation!? How does the gaze of the viewer change over time alter the portrait?

The SUN





Go get your June issues (issue 402) of The SUN magazine and flip to page 9 to see my selected photograph. I have been a fan of The SUN for years and am thrilled to be published in their magazine.


About The Sun

“The Sun, with its superb photographs, is the only magazine that I sit down and read as soon as it arrives. It’s full of people like a Globe Theatre; it’s nourishing like a field of pumpkins; it’s like a grandfather who talks to total strangers.” Robert Bly, poet


The Sun is an independent, ad-free monthly magazine that for more than thirty years has used words and photographs to invoke the splendor and heartache of being human. The Sun celebrates life, but not in a way that ignores its complexity. The personal essays, short stories, interviews, poetry, and photographs that appear in its pages explore the challenges we face and the moments when we rise to meet those challenges.

The Sun publishes the work of emerging and established artists who are striving to be thoughtful and authentic. Writing from The Sun has won the Pushcart Prize, been published in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, and been broadcast on National Public Radio.

The Sun invites readers to consider an array of political, social, and philosophical ideas and then to join the conversation. Each issue includes a section devoted entirely to writing by readers, who address topics as varied as Telling the Truth, Neighbors, Hiding Places, Second Chances, and Gambling.

From its idealistic, unlikely inception in 1974 to its current incarnation as a nonprofit magazine with more than 70,000 subscribers, The Sun has attempted to marry the personal and political; to honor the genuine and the spiritual; to see what kind of roommates beauty and truth can be; and to show that powerful teaching can be found in the lives of ordinary people.

The Sun Publishing Company, Inc. is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and is supported primarily by subscriptions and reader contributions. Donations to The Sun are tax-deductible.

The Sun is to publishing what A Prairie Home Companion is to radio: quietly revolutionary, selectively anachronistic, unfashionably idealistic.” Pat Mullaney, a Sun reader

“The Sun is the most real of magazines, a monthly reminder that everyone has a story to tell and a voice to tell it in. Readers Write is one of the greatest features of American journalism, as iconic in its way as the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town. Few things in our world are reliably moving, but it is, month after month.” Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

Thursday, May 28, 2009

POP at NYU



Festival Opening - May 29

World Savvy's Global Youth Media and Arts Festival celebrates the creativity and vision of NYC youth artists. Please join us for the Opening Celebration!
When: Friday, May 29, 6pm
Where: NYU Commons Gallery, NYU Steinhardt, Barney Building, Ground Floor, 34 Stuyvesant Street at 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues