People in the News

Seattle photographer Phil Borges held “Picture This!,” the first fund-raising event for his nonprofit group Bridges to Understanding, on May 27. The evening featured the presentation of the first Bridges to Understanding Humanitarian Award to Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein.

	Brad Carlile’s “Veg” captures the passage of time over the course of two days. Copyright © Brad Carlile

Borges is also working on multimedia documentaries for his Women Empowerment project. In July, Borges will return to Tibet to film a documentary for the NGO Global Network, focusing on the high death rate of women during childbirth in that region.

Portland, Ore.-based photographer Brad Carlile was one of eight recipients of the Hearst 8×10 Photography Biennial Award this year. The competition, which announced its winners in April, recognizes upcoming photographers in the media industry.

Carlile’s winning series, “Tempus Incognitus,” explores the nature of light and color within the realm of rented rooms and will be on display at the Hearst Museum Gallery in New York City through September. Carlile was also featured at the Flanders Gallery in Raleigh, N.C., earlier this year.

Catherine Hall, a Lafayette, Calif.-based photographer, won two first-place awards and an Accolade of Excellence at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) Awards of Excellence Album Competition this year. In addition to her wedding photography, Hall’s recent work includes portraits from Tasmania.

The WPPI Competition, which was held in Las Vegas in February, featured 196 albums, presented in five different categories from artists around the world.

Photographer Byron Motley premiered his “Viva Cuba Beisbol” series at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Coopers-town, N.Y., on May 23. The exhibit, which documents the cultural impact of baseball in Cuba, will run through January 2010.

Motley, a Los Angeles-based singer, filmmaker, photographer and author, has produced two albums and co-authored his father’s memoir on life in the African-American baseball league throughout the 1940s. He is currently working on a Negro League documentary with “A League of Their Own” producer Penny Marshall.

Doug Walker, best known for his work in commercial and architectural photography, earned a Best Architectural Honorable Mention at the Photographers of Washington Educational Conference Western States Regional Print Competition, held in April. The Olympia, Wash.-based Walker has worked with clients such as the Washington State Department of Employment Security, Cabela’s and William Buchan Homes. In addition to the awards ceremony, the conference, held in Grand Mound, Wash., featured lectures, a trade show and a photo auction.

Los Angeles-based writer Elle Russ will pen the script for the upcoming documentary film project “Headhunt Revisited.” Russ is also a comedic writer and a member of the ACME Comedy Theatre group in Los Angeles.

“Headhunt Revisited” follows Michele Westmorland and Karen Huntt, both Seattle photographers and writers, on their quest to document the culture of indigenous people in Papua New Guinea and on the Solomon Islands. Westmorland and Huntt’s expedition follows the journey of portrait painter Caroline Mytinger, who lived among these islanders from 1926 to 1930.

The documentary will premiere at a yet-to-be-determined date at the de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco. A portion of the proceeds from the accompanying book will be donated to a fund, established by Papua New Guinea’s Parliament, to assist that country’s female art and anthropology students.

APPOINTMENTS

The International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) has appointed Justin Black as its new director. Black will manage an expansion of the organization’s activities, including the creation of the new “Earth in Focus” initiative that will offer workshops, lectures, exhibitions, book publishing and multimedia activities. Cristina Mittermeier, the founder and, since its creation in 2005, executive director of the ILCP, will assume the role of president of the ILCP and will remain fully engaged with the promotion and expansion of the organization.

For the past seven years, Black has been the general manager and curator of Mountain Light Photography in Bishop, Calif. Mountain Light was created by legendary photographer (and ILCP honorary member) Galen Rowell  with his wife and business partner, Barbara, in 1983. Through the efforts of Mittermeier and Black, Mountain Light and ILCP recently announced a new partnership, so ties are expected to grow between the two entities.

SPECIAL HONORS

In April’s Sony World Photography Awards Gala ceremony in Cannes, France, Seattle photographer Daniel Beltrá received the Prince’s Rainforests Project Award. As the winner of this year’s competition, Beltrá will spend three months documenting three of the major rainforest regions around world.

Originally from Spain, Beltrá is well known for his environmental and conservation photography. He has worked with Greenpeace since 1990 and Getty Images since 2001.

Bend, Ore.-based photographer Kevin Kubota was awarded the third annual Monte Zucker Memorial Humanitarian Award during the Wedding & Portrait Photographers’ International Convention and Trade Show, held in Las Vegas.

Kubota received the award for his philanthropic work with Bend’s Family Photo Day in the Park, Habitat for Humanity, the Family Resource Center, Head Start and the Sparrow Club. Last July, Kubota temporarily closed his businesses so that his staff could visit and assist with orphanages in Rwanda.

The Monte Zucker award is presented each year to artists who are actively involved in their community and with charitable work.

PASSAGES

Helen Levitt, 1913 €“2009

Helen Levitt, an American photographer noted for her black-and-white images of New Yorkers during the 1930s and 1940s, died in her sleep at her home in Manhattan on March 29. Levitt was 95 years old.

Born in Brooklyn in 1913, Levitt first turned to photography after dropping out of high school in her senior year. Looking for more inspirational activities, she began work as a photography assistant for J. Florian Mitchell in the Bronx.

In the 1930s Levitt began taking photographs of New York street life, including her famous images of sidewalk chalk graffiti and children dressed in Halloween costumes on their front stoop. During this time, she also supported herself as a film editor.

As she became more renowned in the photography world, Levitt had the opportunity to work with many of her favorite photographers, including Walker Evans and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In 1938 Levitt helped Evans publish his book, “American Photographs.”

Eventually Levitt became a full-time film editor and director. During the 1950s she created several documentaries, including “In the Street,” a glimpse into the Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and “The Quiet One,” a full-length film about a 10-year-old kid living in an institution for juvenile delinquents.

Over the years Levitt also published several photo collections, including “In the Street,” “Mexico City,” “Crosstown” and “Here and There.” She also spent time working with color film in the 1960s.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which began the Helen Levitt Memorial Fund to support acquisition of the mid-20th-century photographs by Levitt and other artists of that era, will be celebrating her life and work at the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Gallery through Aug. 30.

Pirkle Jones, 1914 €“2009

Noted photojournalist and master printer Pirkle Jones died on March 15 of heart failure in San Rafael, Calif. He was 95.

Famous for his portraits of migrant farm workers in the 1930s and leaders of the Black Panthers in the late 1960s, Jones was known for his striking social and political imagery. He worked closely with photographers Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, who helped hone Jones’ highly regarded printing techniques and introduce him to others in the photography community.

Born in Shreveport, La., Jones began exhibiting his work in camera clubs as a teenager in the 1930s. After World War II, Jones enrolled in the first photography class offered by the California School of Fine Arts, where he met artists such as Adams, Lange, Minor White and Edward Weston.

After school, Jones worked for six years as an assistant for Adams and collaborated on his first photo essay, “Death of a Valley,” with Lange. Later, Jones worked with Adams to document the construction of the Paul Masson Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif.

Jones also collaborated with his wife and fellow photographer, Ruth-Marion Baruch, including their documentary, “Walnut Grove, Calif.,” a portrait of a dying town.

After teaching photography at the San Francisco Art Institute for 28 years, he also received an honorary doctorate from the school. He retired from teaching in 1994.

Don Worth, 1924 €“2009

Noted Bay Area photographer and educator Don Worth died at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., on March 18. He was 84.

Long considered a master printer, Worth specialized in black-and-white images of tropical plants and large-format landscapes. For more than 30 years, he taught photography for many years at San Francisco State University and retired in 1993 as Emeritus Professor.

Born in Hayes County, Neb., in 1924, Worth grew up in a very rural area, which helped cultivate his aesthetic interest in plants and landscapes. While working toward his master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music and studying at the Juilliard School of Music, Worth also became interested in modern artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams.

In the 1950s, Worth had the opportunity to meet Adams and was subsequently hired as his full-time assistant. Worth worked with Adams only until 1960, but the two photographers remained close friends until Adams’ death in 1984.

Eventually, Worth put music studies aside and focused solely on photography and horticulture, often using his own half-acre garden in Mill Valley to grow subjects for his iconic plant portraits.

He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph the American landscape in 1974, and received a Photography Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980. Worth’s work was first exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1973 and is part of many permanent collections at museums worldwide.

Worth is survived by his partner of 50 years, Robert Narvaez.