© Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York_Rome
NEWSROOM News from the black & white world Edited by Mark Bentley markbe@thegmcgroup.com
HIGH CONTRAST Lacock Abbey and the Fox Talbot Museum have re-opened, although you’ll need to book your visit in advance. The idyllic country house was once home to William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the photographic negative, and the museum is now home to hundreds of cameras, devices and toys dating from the 18th century, as well as almost 3,500 photographic images ranging from the earliest processes through to the first part of the 20th century. National Trust members can book for free, while tickets for adult nonmembers are £10.
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Leica is to move part of its M-mount lens production from its famous Wetzlar factory to a state of the art facility in Portugal. The move is to avoid a 25% tariff imposed on ‘Made in Germany’ products by the US government. Lenses to receive the new ‘Made in Portugal’ engraving include the Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH, 35mm f/2 ASPH and 28mm f/2 ASPH. Leica’s Portuguese-made optics will be identical in design, manufacture and warranty, and will filter through to retailers before the end of the year. A 109-year-old camera shop has burned down in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during recent rioting. Rode’s Camera Shop opened in 1911 and was owned by the Rode family until eight years ago when the business was bought by employees Paul Willette and Tom Gram. The riots were triggered by the shooting of Kenosha resident Jacob Blake by a police officer. The co-owners subsequently declined a presidential request to be part of a ‘tour of damage’ visit and photo opportunity. ‘Everything Trump does turns into a circus and I just didn’t want to be involved in it,’ said Gram in a local TV interview.
Sandra Gould Ford in her office in Homewood, PA, 2017 by LaToya Ruby Frazier
KRASZNA-KRAUSZ WINNER ANNOUNCED Chicago-based visual artist LaToya Ruby Frazier has won the 35th Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award for her eponymous book LaToya Ruby Frazier. Published to accompany last year’s exhibition at Mudam Luxembourg, Frazier’s powerful tome brings together three series that comment on racial discrimination, poverty and post-industrial decline: The Notion of Family (2001–14), On the Making of Steel Genesis: Sandra Gould Ford (2017) and And From the Coaltips a Tree Will Rise (2016–17). She receives a £5,000 prize. ‘In my photographs, I make social commentary
about urgent issues I see in the communities or places I’m in. I use them as a platform to advocate for social justice and as a means to create visibility for people who are on the margins, who are deemed “unworthy”: the poor, the elderly, the working class, and anyone who doesn’t have a voice. I create depictions of their humanity that call for equity,’ said Frazier. Frazier is an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and will soon publish two new books: LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze (2020) and Flint is Family in Three Acts (2021).
