Open Show is teaming up again with the illustrious San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF56) to co-present STORIES WE TELL, a documentary by actress and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley.

A vivacious force of nature, Polley’s mother died when her daughter was just a child.  In the wake of a startling revelation, Polley intersperses observations from her large blended family, her mother’s friends, and archival footage in her first documentary, and manages to articulate wider ideas of how people confront their personal histories while telling the very particular story of her own.

DATES: April 29 6:15pm & April 30 1:30pm
VENUE: Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in SF Japatown
Director Sarah Polley will be in attendance – preview the film before it hits theaters May 10th!

Buy tickets now before they’re sold out >>

There goes 2012. The Space Shuttle is retired. The Giants sneak up on San Francisco and douse it in confetti for the second time in three years.

And Open Show expanded to a slew of new cities thanks to our passionate volunteer co-producers:New York City, Tokyo, Pittsburgh, Zagreb, Pune, Coimbra, Habana, Washington D.C., and Buenos Aires, to list a few. What a year.

And, like a good Mayan doomsday prophecy believer, we’re not quite ready to let go. Come say a proper farewell to 2012 with Open Show festivities in cities around the world:
Jan.11 – Coimbra #3
Jan.12 – Hyderabad #9
Jan.16 – Los Angeles #16 (Emerging Focus Finalists)
Jan.17 – Open Show #45 (Best of Open Show 2012)
Feb.2 – Open Show Tokyo (CP+ Photo Show w/ Open Show’s Founder)
Feb.6 – Switzerland #10
Feb.22 – Hong Kong #2

In 2013 we also invite more librarians, archivists, history buffs, photo collectors and others to be part of our Living Histories initiative, resurrecting work by photographers who are no longer alive. Interested in presenting historical work? Contact us here>>

Thanks to all of you that supported us in the last year, whether in name, spirit, donations or good old fashioned hugs!

Want to join the movement? Get involved in an active city or start an Open Show in your town >>

With the rapid rise of smartphone cameras, photography has never been cheaper, easier or more ubiquitous in our history.

But smartphones are not the whole story – a convergence of technology has fueled a vast expansion in who can create images. And how quickly and widely we can share them.

Kickstarter, Vimeo, Blurb, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Photoshelter, Instagram, Storify and many other online platforms have changed the playing field.

The fundamental tools for who tells stories and why are being rearranged and amplified. This has altered our relationship to photography – and our own view of ourselves.

Yet despite the saturation of media in our daily lives, the power of a still image remains. And interest in old forms of image making and printing techniques are seeing a resurgence.

This February 2nd at CP+ 2012 in Yokohama, Open Show founder Tim Wagner will explore how new hardware, software and online communities are blending with previous tools and social structures – and changing how stories are told.

Register for this special Open Show event here >>
Seats are free, but limited, so register now!

Tim Wagner Talk + Open Show Presenters in Discussion
Date: Feb.2 (Sat)
Time: 13:30-17:45
Venue: Pacifico Yokohama Japan Annex Hall F203/204

I just wanted to share the below note from Issa Touma, who is our co-producer in Aleppo, Syria.

It’s easy to get discouraged or burned out working away in our everyday life. Issa’s words are an inspiring reminder about how easy we actually have it – and the value of what Open Show does through art and community.

I’m honored to collaborate with people like Issa and the many other tireless volunteers who are the foundation of what we do. I invite you to join us and spread the movement to your city.

- Tim Wagner
Founder of Open Show

I like to inform  all our friends the following : we still working in Aleppo in Aleppo international photo festival and Art Camping , we know well many from Population of the city leave out and almost  most of the intellectuals runaway. Me myself I become half refugee , because I lost my home from 27 of August after lot of shooting enter from all windows into my Home, but thanks God I still  have a place to stay .

Last night Aleppo never sleeps , smoke come into every House and every rooms .. and many die from that , every morning we  wake up to see if our friend and family still alive , and to count how many we lost .
In other way Aleppo Festival working well also Art Camping  , after all give to all feeling of safe and Hope ,and nice memory about the old days , the  realty  is after all Bombing most of the population still in the city.

Thanks to all artist and intellectuals and blogs  and international magazine ho helping to show life in the war zone: Syria: a Culture of Peace in Time of War.

Yesterday Sep 27  at 5 PM started   big war between 2 Army , with lot of bombing into the  Christian Aria ,center of the city , which become a mix aria now after the Refugees from around Aleppo come into  the center to use the empty houses and basements . All together have no corner to hide or to run away any more , its in the middle of the Black smoke  around all the city .

After very successful week , I open my Gallery door for the Festival Visitors also at 5 PM , after waiting  some time , a Popular women come into the gallery and ask : can I see the show  I love Art  but I never have chance to visit Art gallery before, her name was Ateya  , she was today our only visitor , but for me her courage  to come  to see Art was like opening day.

Now its 12 Am and still the Black smoke around us , it’s the day of the bad dreams.

And hope to meet again soon in peace

ISSA TOUMA
Open Show Aleppo
Le Pont Art Organization

 Photo by Nazem Jawesh

Open Show co-founder Tim Wagner recently interviewed photographer James Balog about his Extreme Ice Survey project documenting the world’s glacial terrain through cameras left in remote locales for long spans of time.

Tim: How was the idea for this project born?
James: In the course of shooting assignments on retreating glaciers for The New Yorker and National Geographic in 2005–06, I was stunned to see that extraordinary amounts of ice were vanishing with shocking speed. Ice that had taken centuries to form was disappearing in just a few years, months or even weeks. This was geologic-scale change happening not just in the dim past or distant future, but right here, right now, in our own time. These observations were the catalyst for the Extreme Ice Survey.

Video is such a new medium. It can only get better. It’s great to see a project like this where the focus is on a really interesting idea rather than sheer technical prowess, though the editing here is no joke.

Check out PressPausePlay, a look at what the digital revolution has done for art-making. The filmmakers focus on music and film, but all of what they say is directly applicable to photography.

Before you could sell a record for $10 or $16.98 as a CD because there was still this inherent mystery about how it was done, who did it, and how can I do that thing. Well now, that mystery has dissolved because I can make it, anybody can make it. They know the secrets now.

- Hank Shocklee

Almost everybody I meet in the world of art, music, literature, creative expression – everybody’s equally excited and afraid. No one is really knows where their next paycheck is coming from but they’re really excited at their ability to create work and communicate.

- Moby

George Eastman house has made a video illustrating how old Civil War era tintypes are made. (via PetaPixel)

Open Show recently sat down with former senior editor for American Photo Magazine and photo consultant Miki Johnson to talk about the movement towards collaborative projects, how to get there and Open Show’s joint project with RingReef to hold a first ever collaborative photo contest at SXSW this year (Mar.9-15).

Q: Why is collaboration important for today’s creative professionals?
I’ll give you an example from the photo world, since that’s what I’m most familiar with. Ten years ago, if you were a photojournalist, you worked for a newspaper or magazine, you got assigned photos, you took them, developed them, captioned then, and then took more photos. Now, if you’re a photojournalist (and there are fewer every day), you are working for yourself, so you’re managing your website, marketing yourself, doing the accounting, and you’re also expected to do video, multimedia slideshows, sound, and probably some web design.

No one can do that many things wonderfully, so I see this is an unsustainable situation, especially for creative types, who need more unstructured time to actually be creative. The way to make this work, I think, is to work with people who specialize in marketing, sound, design, web, etc. But self-employed creatives can’t afford to employ all those people full-time, so they need to be able to build flexible, mutually beneficial partnerships with them—what I would call “collaborative teams.”

Q: What skills should creatives focus on to make their collaborations more successful?
I generally break collaborative skills into five sections: knowing what you know, knowing what you need, setting goals, communicating effectively, and learning from experience. The first one might be the most important, yet people are most likely to skip it. Creatives should start by thinking about what collaboration is really going to mean: In most instances, you are giving up an amount of control in exchange for someone else taking on responsibilities, sharing their skills, and decreasing the time required from you. One way to get comfortable with giving up some control is to think about what you bring to the table and then what you know will be better for someone else to take over, which will hopefully decrease your urge to micromanage them.

The second most important thing is to verbally, or in writing even, establish goals, deadlines, and measures of success with your collaborators. Finally, agree on times and ways to communicate regularly about your shared project, including a debrief when it’s completed to celebrate what went well and discuss how you can improve next time.

Q: And you’re doing something at SXSW this year about collaboration?
Yes, SXSW decided to do a PhotoCamp for the first time this year, since they recognize that there is a big overlap between the photography and interactive worlds (not to mention film and music). The idea is to create a space where anyone who is enthusiastic about photography can connect with other enthusiasts, from pros to Instagram celebrities (at Palm Door on March 12th).

With such a wide range of skills and interests, I’m staying away from traditional “how-to” stype stuff, and focusing on collaboration. Anyone is encouraged to stop in and fill out a quick questionnaire to determine “what kind of collaborator you are,” then we’ll help them find others who they might work well with. We’ll also provide quick collaborative projects people can do at SXSW with their smartphones, and tips on making the project successful. If they want to take their collaboration to the next level, they can even enter the RingReef “SXSW Through Your Eyes” contest, which I’m judging.

Q: How is this different than a normal photo contest?
Most photo contests focus on a single vision from one photographer. RingReef is a smartphone app that lets you easily share text and photos with a group, a “reef,” that you set up. So it’s a perfect space for smartphone photographers to collaborate, on the go, and create a group vision entirely on their mobile devices. This is the first time RingReef has done this contest, and I always like things that are a little experimental, plus it lines up perfectly with my collaboration ideas. Basically, the winning teams will receive prizes for doing something they would be doing anyway—snapping and sharing photos of SXSW.

Q: What do you hope smartphone photographers will gain from this experience?
As I see it, we are on the cusp of a shift in digital technology. First we were all so excited to be able to share anything any time that we quickly overloaded ourselves and the digital universe. Now curation is really important; the most valuable services help filter stuff to you that will like so you don’t have to wade through overwhelming amounts of information.

But I notice that both of these things, sharing and curation, are still largely aimed at the single user with a single stream of information. I see things heading more and more toward converging information streams, especially around specific topics. Apps like RingReef are an indicator of that. And as we move into that next step, what I call the era of collaboration, it’s going to be increasingly important to be able to adapt your vision to different teams and audiences. I’m hoping PhotoCamp and the RingReef contest will give smartphone photographers an opportunity to learn to adapt in that way and to lead the evolution toward a more collaborative, and therefore contextualized, digital experience.