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Contrario Collective and the Sum of its Parts

March 26, 2015 By Caroline Space

"Pearls" by Emma McAlary
“Pearls” by Emma McAlary

The art world has a reputation of being a competitive place, but often here, in the nation’s capital, we see camaraderie bloom between artists. The new photography group, Contrario Collective, has a mission to unite photographers to inspire each other and create collectively. They opened an exhibit featuring work by their members last Thursday, so I stopped by to see the display and talk to the photographers about what their goal is for the collective.

"Out" by Victoria Milko
“Out” by Victoria Milko

Victoria Milko says she felt the need to assemble a collective in D.C. that is a “constructive place where a bunch of us can get together, take photos, and critique each other’s work with no pretense of being competitive.” In the art community, she says, “there are two sides to the spectrum: you can share your information and learn from each other or, you can be really competitive and not talk about what you’re doing.” Milko describes her friend, Emma McAlary as easy-going, kind, and creative, making her the perfect partner to help organize a collective. The two women share the same values and ideas about photography today, especially in Washington, D.C. McAlary says, “Victoria and I got together one day and we were just talking about the landscape of the D.C. art scene—photography specifically—and we thought there isn’t quite a place for us. And we want to go against the grain—hence the name—Contrario.” They wanted to enlist more like-minded photographers to create a collective based on what Milko describes as an “idea that isn’t typically found in the photography scene.”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, Exposed Interview, Review Tagged With: Candid Moments, Contrario Collective, Emma McAlary, Farrah Skeiky, Katie Fielding, Motorcycle Photography, music photography, Noe Todorovich, OUT Riders Women's Motorcycle Club, photojournalism, SCID, Sensory Images, The Perlan Theater Group, Victoria Milko

Sneak Preview of Suspect Device Exhibition Video

March 4, 2015 By James Calder

 

“Suspect Device” opens this Friday, March 6, at Leica Store DC’s gallery with 20 photographs by Exposed alum Chris Suspect. The images in the exhibit are part of Suspect’s eponymous photobook which documents the last four years of  D.C.’s longstanding hardcore music scene.

Chris kindly shared this video with us, telling us it will appear in-store at the gallery, except without the accompanying music. We asked him to tell us how the video came about:

I wanted it to represent the photography but also to put the work into context for people wondering what the images are about by using parts of Alec MacKaye’s foreword from the book. Alec really nailed the feelings and thoughts I wanted to impart with the photographs with his words. He did a great job and I think he deserves a lot of recognition for the effort he put forth as well. The song in the video is “Graveyard” by The Suspects, a band I played in during the early to late 90’s. Grave Mistake records will be re-releasing our first record we put out over 20 years ago this year.

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight Tagged With: Chris Suspect, harDCore, Leica Store DC, music photography, Suspect Device, video

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