ny.08.#05 by Jennifer Sánchez

Atlanta collectors, you're in for a treat: Jennifer Sánchez is showing three of her newest paintings at Soho Myriad's group show, Intricacies, which opened just this past Friday in your fine city. If you think her 20x200 prints ny.07.#20 and ny.07.#34 look amazing online, just wait till you see her paintings in person; I guarantee you'll be knocked out.

P.S. We've got the originals of both her 20x200 editions for sale—please email collector AT 20x200.com if you're interested. ny.07.#20 is all sold out, but we've still got two prints of ny.07.#34 in large, so grab one while you still can.

Intricacies @ Soho Myriad
1250 Menlo Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
May 2 to September

Welwitchia Mirabilis #0707-22411 by Rachel Sussman

Unsurprisingly, Rachel Sussman's 20x200 edition from earlier this week, Towards Christiana (Copenhagen), is sold out in all but the largest sizes already. The collectors who get the large ones are lucky ducks though — it just so happens that Rachel's photographs are particularly fantastic as big prints. Of course you should take my word on it, but why not see it with your own eyes?

If you're a NYer, or are planning on visiting our fair city any time this month, make your way to Michael Steinberg Fine Art over in Chelsea where you can see ginormous, delicious prints from Rachel's ongoing The Oldest Living Things in the World series.

For over a year now, Rachel's been "researching, working with biologists, and traveling around the world to photograph living organisms, aged 2000 years old and older." I love that she's chronicling her adventures on her project blog, as well as accepting frequent flier mile donations to offset what must be tremendous travelling expenses—if you've got any to spare, please consider sending them her way! "You'll receive a special limited edition print," she says, "in addition to my undying gratitude." Places still on Rachel's list include Tasmania, Southern Australia, Greenland, Sri Lanka, Antarctica, Ibiza, Crete, Sweden and Northern California, so she's still got lots of flying to do.

Frequent Flier miles aside, adding the work of an emerging artist to your collection is a meaningful and lasting form of support. We've still got those two 30"x40" prints of Rachel's available for purchase and we're also offering an edition of 3 prints at her above-mentioned ginormo exhibition size of 44"x54". Drop an email to collector at 20x200 dot com to learn more about those.

The Oldest Living Things in the World
Solo Show @ Michael Steinberg Fine Art
May 1-31st
526 West 26th Street, Suite 215

Studio Apartment, by Chi Birmingham

Like Alice's White Rabbit, I'm late, late, late for a very important date. So my fine collector friends, I will give you the briefest of free-association introductions to today's wonderful fine art edition from Big Sur born, Brooklyn dwelling artist Chi Birmingham.

Studio Apartment brings to my mind a few disparate things:

- The movie Rear Window

- A recurring dream that I have wherein I suddenly discover a whole extra room in my apartment. (Bummer waking up to reality from that one, let me tell you.)

- My waking dream, hope, most fervent wish that one day soon I'll get to move to an apartment on a high floor, better yet the top floor, flooded with natural light. (I am currently cave-dwelling underneath what must be a herd of elephants. My beloved art is all crooked on the walls from the continuous rumble.)

- Wood grain and sage green are most pleasing to my eye.

- Perhaps I should consider a house plant? One that doesn't require much natural light.

And now back to my preparations for Kent Rogowski's solo show, Love = Love, which opens tomorrow at the gallery . It's so freaking great, I can hardly stand it. More on that in my next dispatch. Until then: adieu!

Untitled #9, by Kent Rogowski

Frenzied Wednesday greetings, collectors! I'm sitting in the gallery typing away as the crew puts the finishing touches on Love = Love, an exhibition of large scale photographs and puzzle montages by Kent Rogowski.

Today's edition, Untitled #9, is photographic print based on a unique puzzle montage that is being hung in the gallery right this very second. An edition of 3 exhibition-sized (44"x57") prints are available as well. Back in my days of Disney toil, we'd call this synergy. I gotta say though: synergy then was never so much fun as all this.

I have two major thinky obsessions related to photography, the relationship between photographer and subject in portraiture is the first; the second is the consideration of a photograph as an object rather than as a document. (The latter topic has become especially fascinating since I started doing 20x200.)

Kent's project really pushes the topic of object vs. document. He's taking objects made from photographs, deconstructing them, reassembling them, documenting those reassembled objects and then to top it all off, these documents become different objects entirely when you present them at different sizes. Which is what the exhibition is all about.

Doing a 20x200 edition is the meta-est manifestation of the concept; the effect of the grid-like fault lines of the puzzles varies enormously depending on the dimensions of the print. Their presence is most obvious at its smallest and largest sizes, but in totally different ways.

As I say in the exhibition's press release, I fell in love with Love = Love immediately. I have a practically Pavlovian response to the bright and shiny, so they had me at hello. Throw in nostalgia (puzzle making seems awfully old-fashioned in these days of Wii) and the thinky parts, and I was goner than gone. Ask anyone who knows me — I have basically not shut up about the damn things since I finally saw them in person at Fotofest in March.

Bert Teunissen and I had a long discussion about all of this on Monday evening, over wings and margaritas at Great Jones Cafe. (First class treatment for my international friends: always guaranteed.) He himself is the king of the photograph as a document, so the conversation was particularly intriguing. I can't wait to hear what he thinks when he sees Kent's photos at the opening tonight.*

I'd love to know what you think too - I hope to see a good showing of 20x200 collectors at tonight's reception. The gallery's located at 6 Spring St, just off the Bowery, festivities commence at 6. As an aside, you can stay up to date on gallery happenings by signing up for our mailing list.

I'm off to attend to the last details of the day. See you later, ok? OK!

*Confidential to Bert: You are so totally on the hook to show up now, just like you promised.

Site, by Sarah McKenzie

Greetings, collectors near and far, on this most lovely of Tuesdays. NYC is bright and breezy today, which is quite a relief after a Monday on which I considered it might be time to build an ark. With that project back-burnered for the moment, I can focus on the buildings of others. Or the paintings of buildings of others. Or is it the prints created from the paintings of buildings of others? Yes, that one! Let's get on with it shall we?

Today's print edition is Site, by Colorado-based painter Sarah McKenzie. I am particularly proud, excited and pleased with this edition as it's the result of my museum-related edition scouting. I first saw Sarah's work in February, when I was in Minneapolis and attended the opening for Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes at The Walker. (Incidentally, I am totally nuts for both that show specifically and the museum in general . Highly recommended!)

Since the advent of 20x200, I wander through galleries, museums and art fairs jotting down the names of artists I like in my Moleskine. I am convinced that pretty much every artist should do an edition with us, every artist I like at least, and given the opportunity I will ask accordingly. I'm not afraid of "No", nor am I inclined to accept it as an answer. See how hard I work for you people?

During my Walker wanderings, I saw Sarah's amazing painting and her name and the painting were jotted down in my notebook with high hopes.* Flash forward to a few months later, and here I am presenting you fine people an edition from Ms. McKenzie! A museum piece, no less! (Thanks to the Walker for accommodating us to shoot the piece.)

Site got to be in the museum for a reason - Sarah wields a paint paintbrush deftly, giving us a fresh view of the banality of suburbia. I shift through different impressions each time I look at it. At first glance it seemed photorealistic, in part because it reminds me of the ground well-trod by many of my favorite fine art photographers. But look closely and it's clearly not quite real -there is a flatness in both her paint and perspective that has the primitive feeling of folk art. Take that flatness in and allow yourself to focus on the lines, angles and grids of her work; suddenly you're fully immersed in geometric abstraction, a la the 20th century Modernists. The familiarity of the subject matter allows me to travel through these genres with ease, unencumbered by that uptight "Do I really get it?" feeling. Of course I get it! I've been driving past it my entire life, as have many of you, I'd imagine.

I've always found that being able to move through something with ease can lead to a deeper understanding of a subject. If I can shed the weight of what I don't know, I learn more. (Insecurity and uncertainty are a drag.) Sarah's paintings have instant appeal and familiarity, so they're immediately engaging. Once engaged, I look closer at everything: the subject, how she paints it and the history she's building on. What I don't know is more interesting, and less intimidating; it helps me enjoy what I do know even more by giving me greater insight and connecting my experience to a larger world. So, thanks Sarah, for giving me a fresh perspective and making my world bigger. I hope that she does the same for you.

I'll be back tomorrow with some boundary-broadening photographic work from an artist who's been evolving and growing before my very eyes. We've also got a special bonus edition coming on Thursday, so: Mark your calendars! We'll be introducing an edition to benefit SFJAZZ on the eve of their 25th Anniversary Gala honoring jazz great Wayne Shorter.

I've never wished I could be in more than one place at once more than I am wishing it this week. I am missing the gala, which I'd love to attend for sentimental reasons having to do with both jazz and San Francisco. I just couldn't get away, however, since New York City is positively jumping with The New York Photo Festival and its attendant parties, exhibitions and events.

On Friday evening, as part of Apeture Presents at the NY Photo Fest, I'm on a panel called Curating 2.0 with Laurel Ptak of i heart photograph and Tim Barber of tinyvices.com.

Another not-to-be-missed event this week: the annual benefit for Rhizome supporter, lover and uniter of art and technology.

Lots to do!

* I actually wrote down a lot of names from that show because, like I said, it's a great one and it's full of amazing contemporary artists many of whom I was unfamiliar with until I saw the exhibition. So much 20x200 goodness is in store, yesiree!

Tree Tops, from the series Somewhere in Israel, by Curtis Mann

Good Wednesday, collectors. I am rushing off to a jam-packed day so I'm going to keep my introduction to today's edition relatively brief. (Shocking, I know.)

Treetops from a series by Curtis Mann called Somewhere in Israel, is another body of work that explores the idea of photographs as objects . (Last week's edition by Kent Rogowski dealt with similar themes, producing an entirely different result.) Curtis does a great job of explaining what he's up to in his statement, so I'll let him speak for himself:

...found photographs of unfamiliar and conflicted places throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa are subjected to a process of selection and erasure. By simply painting on enlarged color photographs with clear acrylic and then bleaching the image with household Clorox bleach, a new and abstract meaning is being forced out of these family snapshots, travel photographs and casual documentations.

The photograph is physically and contextually altered; as a result, the work has the ability to oscillate between image and object, photography and painting, real and imagined. I am constantly trying to force the medium to function outside of its initial utility and use its malleable nature as a way of coming to an ulterior understanding of the complex and the unfamiliar. This new reading attempts to shift and expand the limits on how we perceive and understand the fragmented world in which the photograph attempts to represent.

Today is a big day for Curtis; in addition to making his 20x200 debut, he's got a big opening in New York tonight. The Ubiquitous Image, curated by Aperture publisher and Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Lesley Martin, includes several images from this series. The show is one of the four main exhibitions that are the centerpiece of The New York Photo Festival.

Tonight's opening is the first of a flurry events happening over the next few days, including the aforementioned Curating 2.0 panel that I'm participating in on Friday. Curtis is a Hot Shot who first showed with me back in Fall 2005 and is, as of this writing, a 20x200 artist. In other words: he's a perfect example of my 2.0 curatorial practice. I couldn't think of a better day to introduce his work to all of you!

Having introduced you, I'll take my leave till tomorrow. That's right tomorrow! In case you've forgotten (or didn't read that far) we're doing a special bonus edition tomorrow to benefit SFJAZZ. This means even more art for everyone, and that should be music to your ears.

The Sunset Magazine blog has a nice piece on 20x200 this week. Click on over.

"Often the best ideas are the simplest, and the simplicity of 20x200 has generated a lot of buzz from magazines such as Dwell and ReadyMade, and sites such as Boing Boing and ApartmentTherapy. It’s also generated plenty of sales:In March, small-size prints by Colin Blakely and Bert Teunissen sold out in less than a week."

Monk, by Mark Ulriksen

Bonus Thursday greetings with a special shout out to the Bay Area. As close readers of this newsletter know, today's special edition is to benefit amazing arts organization SFJAZZ. In other West Coast news, Allison Arieff published a wonderful write-up about 20x200 on the Sunset magazine's blog. As a former writer about design, I have worshiped Ms. Arieff from afar for some time, so glowing accolades from her are especially flattering.

Today's edition Monk, is by jazz-loving artist Mark Ulriksen. If his distinctive style looks familiar to you, it's likely because his work has been featured on many covers of The New Yorker.

I have always had a strong affinity for jazz and was fortunate to have my taste shaped by some amazing jazz musicians; Thelonius Monk was always core to the canon, as he well should be. I had an amazing friendship with tenor great Joe Henderson who encouraged me to give the music business a try. I spent a while working at a jazz publishing house in the Flower District that also doubled as a rehearsal studio for folks like Ben Riley, The Manhattan Transfer and T.S. Monk who I came to know as Toot. Another highlight: holding the original copyright certificate of 'Round Midnight in my hands. My career there was short-lived but my love of jazz is a lifelong passion.

I carried that passion with me when I moved to San Francisco in 1996, and The San Francisco Jazz Festival kept that passion well tended to. One of my sweetest SF memories is seeing Sonny Rollins at Masonic Hall. As producers of the Festival, SFJAZZ is an organization that I have held in high-esteem for years. Combine that with the piece of my heart that I left in San Francisco, and you can see how doing an edition to benefit them is a no-brainer.

I am bringing this edition to you on the eve of their big 25th Anniversary Gala. The event, at the Fours Season in San Francisco tomorrow night, will honor yet another jazz great Wayne Shorter. While I can't be there for the main event, I am most honored to celebrate this fine organization from afar, and I'm very grateful to Mark Ulriksen for making the celebration such a sweet one.

So with a toast to Mr. Ulriksen, you fine collector people and SFJAZZ, I'll say so long till next week when I'll be back to serve up some more fine editions to you. See you then!

--

About SFJAZZ

SFJAZZ is an international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education. The San Francisco-based organization's 25th Anniversary Gala (May 16, 2008) honors legendary saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Wayne Shorter in his 75th birthday year. This elegant evening, a benefit for the artistic and education programs of SFJAZZ, will feature performances by Shorter with members of the SFJAZZ Collective, the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars, and an after-party with the Tommy Castro Band. For more information on the Gala and SFJAZZ's many programs, visit sfjazz.org.

Art by Megan Whitmarsh in the collection of Ky Anderson
I always love walking into homes with art collections. You know when you've entered the realm of a collector when the stories start flowing, because collectors always have stories to tell about the art on their walls. Whether expensive or humble, what's important is that the pieces are chosen with care. One of our favorite 20x200 artists, Ky Anderson has a section on her website devoted to her personal art collection. She writes, "This is art that I have traded, bought, found... [it is art that was] given to me, or stolen. I made this section of my web site to encourage trading and collecting art." We couldn't have said it any better ourselves.

We still have an edition by Ky to add to your collection, it's titled Many Mountains.

Every Person in New York, by Jason Polan

More from this series:

Man Sleeping on the Downtown B Train

Woman in the Rain

Man Sitting on Steps on Mercer Street

Gloomy, blustery Tuesday greetings, collector people! If I didn't know it was Spring, I'd swear it was Fall. Late May seems a bit, well, late for turtleneck sweaters, wouldn't you say? I prefer it to the Summer swelter, but sheesh! It's been a strange Spring here in New York City.

Hot on the heels of last Thursday's San Francisco treat, we're bringing things back East with Every Person in New York, 600 for 20x200, our second edition from Jason Polan. It's not exactly an edition however, since each of 222 items we are offering is an original one-of-kind drawing.

A lot of what I had to say about The Hand Project, his first edition with us, applies to Every Person in New York as well - Jason has set a lofty (actually impossible) goal of drawing every person in New York. And he takes the goal seriously, in spite of it's impossibility.

What I admire about the endeavor is the attempt to suspend the river of humanity that is our fair city, one person at a time. It's a rich practice with unending, unconquerable source material. My own personal correlation is with the stories I invent about people I see on subways, through restaurant windows, driving taxis, delivering takeout or leaning up against doorways of shops, smoking and bored - it's an interior monologue that's been running for a lifetime, and I'll never tire of it.

As evidenced by the flurry of attention Jason's received for the project, this quixotic undertaking is provocative. I have one friend who questions the project, in part because I think that she thinks that Jason's being arch and ultra-ironic in a McSweeney's kind of way, in spite of my insistence on his sincerity. Other detractors focus on the "but is it art?" avenue of inquiry. My answer, in case it isn't entirely obvious: most definitely!

Some notes about the edition: each of the two hundred $20 editions is a unique drawing of a New Yorker, each of the twenty $200 editions is a drawing of ten New Yorkers on a single piece of 12"x16" paper and each of the two $2000 editions is a drawing of one hundred New Yorkers, one of whom can be you if you want it to be, on a single piece of 18"x22" paper.

This New Yorker, undrawn to date, is taking off for the time being. I'll be back tomorrow with this week's photo edition. See you then!

20x200 is a very small company and in order to reach all of you we outsource some of our technology. Yesterday the people who provide our mailing list had a few hiccups and more than half of you did not get yesterday's newsletter until today and hence did not get a fair shot at Mr. Polan's drawings which had sold out by the time you received the email. We understand many of you are upset by this. We apologize and hope to make it up to you by providing lots of great art. We've also put off sending out today's newsletter until tomorrow to make sure all the problems have been resolved.

Apologetic Thursday greetings, collector friends. We hit a bit of a snafu with our mailing list this week — our service provider just upgraded and is rolling out new! improved! features and there were some hiccups. Big ones. Like, half of you didn't get the newsletter on Tuesday. So, rather than risk being even sorrier, we played it safe and took some extra time (and it took even more time than it should have...) to make sure that everything was back on track. I write to you now with crossed fingers (it's as hard as it sounds) and high hopes that this dispatch makes its way across the ether into every single 20x200 subscriber Inbox. Onward!

Today's edition Jim Crow Road is by Michael David Murphy an Atlanta based photographer with a global reach. Michael's one of my very first friends from the online photoworld and he's created his own mini-universe via an array of top-notch sites and blogs that feature pictures he's taken, pictures he hasn't taken and thoughts on the pictures of others.

When scheduling Michael's edition, it seemed fitting to run it right around the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. That landmark case declared unconstitutional the Jim Crow laws which mandated segregated "separate but equal" public schools. That was nearly 25 years ago, and while much has changed since then, Michael's photograph reminds us that there's still a long way to go.

With a nod to the street sign shadows of Lee Friedlander, Jim Crow Road speaks to photography's enduring role in public and political life. The presence of this road sign, plain as day in its unmistakably contemporary landscape of sidewalk free suburbia, is chilling. It reminds me of the classic and equally discomfiting drinking fountains by Elliott Erwitt. The difference is that there's no veneer of age to give us safe distance from a shameful past.

Photography that's public and political seems particularly powerful and relevant during this historical political season. There are some amazing pictures being made right now - Larry Fink is on the campaign trail with Hillary and Obama, and there are plenty of other stunning photos being made by others along the way. And yes, there's a good deal of ugliness to be captured as well.

All this work, Michael's among it, is an important document of our time. I look forward to all of these photos accumulating that aged veneer. Hopefully in our looking-back future, Jim Crow Road will be long gone and the photos of the campaign will be seen as the herald of a turn towards a brighter future.

Your future with me is closer than you think! I'm coming back tomorrow with a little extra something to make up for Tuesday's email mishaps. Be on the look out!

Holiday weekend greetings, collectors and a very happy start of Summer to you!

Perhaps you are reading this on your iPhone while sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the West Side Highway or the LIE. (Or whatever the equivalent might be in your home town.) Perhaps you're still at work and annoyed about it. Perhaps you're just popping inside to check your mail while the grill heats up poolside. (Don't make me hate you, ok?)

Wherever you are, or wherever you're going, it's time to make room for more art in your life. I am here to make it that! much! easier! Ridiculously easy in fact.

I am proud to announce our first ever (and perhaps only) 20% More Ridiculous Sale. That's right, for this weekend only we're making our ridiculously affordable prices that much more ridiculouser and discounting prints in all sizes by a whopping 20%.*

The sale starts right about... now and it ends at 11:59pm (edt) on Monday, May 26th.

The word is out about 20x200, which means that all the prints featured on our homepage are often sold out. Dig a little deeper though, and you'll see that there's lots fabulous work from our early days that's still available.

You can browse the inventory any which way you please. A nifty and useful new feature is our browse by size function. Now you can view all prints that are still available in small, medium or large.

A few notes about the sale:

- enter the coupon code RIDONK at checkout to redeem your discount

- any size print can be purchased with the 20% discount. (That's $400 off a large print! Holy guacamole!)

- the 20% discount applies to print price only.

- you can purchase up to 5 prints with the 20% discount

- the sale ends promptly at 11:59pm on Monday. No exceptions!

If you're not shopping yet, well, what are you waiting for?! Get going! And have a great weekend too.

*I feel like Crazy Eddie. (You remember Crazy Eddie, right?) You could call me Crazy Jenny but, fair warning: There are only two people on the planet with permission to call me Jenny and I'm pretty sure that you're not one of them.

Birds of a Feather, by Echo Eggebrecht

Tuesday greetings, my fine feathered friends. It's been a while since we've featured any avian themed art, but I've definitely got birds on the brain. We're in the midst of preparations for our upcoming Summer group show, Ornithology, which opens at Jen Bekman Gallery on June 25th. Yikes, that is soon. It's not just birds that fly! For your anticipation, and my own inspiration, both of this week's editions feature things that go tweet.

Today's Birds of a Feather is our second edition from painter Echo Eggebrecht. I love the surreality of the scene and find my (admittedly futile) attempts to make sense of it amusing. It's also a lovely contrast to the swirling darkness of her first edition, the gorgeous Time Machine, which signals its mystery differently.

For a while I was obsessed with Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, indecipherable as it was (and still is) to me. I was utterly mystified by most of it, but also I was thoroughly entertained - it was sexy, funny, interesting, surprising, beautiful to look at and also brutal. Like life should be, except surreal.

A lot of Echo's work affects me similarly, there are stories she's telling and symbolism, easier for some of us to pick out than it might be for others, abounds. But you don't need the symbols deciphered to get your own meaning and enjoyment from the work, or to create your own stories.

Also: just look! It's beautiful, distinctive and utterly unique. I love the palette — the creamy hues paired with reds and oranges and pinks remind me of Mexican folk art, and the flatness of perspective brings to mind folk art in the same way that Site, Sarah McKenzie's recent edition, did. And yet, all of Echo's work is suffused with a Old World European sensibility that makes me think of castles, heavy drapes and tragic tales.

If you're in NYC, you'll have a chance to see some of Echo's gorgeous work in person very very soon. She's in a group show at Sunday gallery, showing along with many other fine painters including our own 20x200 edition maker Rachell Sumpter. Sunday is a great gallery that shows many fine emerging painters, and its proprietor, Clayton Sean Horton, is friendly, smart and terrific. In other words: he's a wonderful neighbor. Tenderly opens this Thursday (May 29) from 6pm-9pm. I can't wait!

I'm back tomorrow with this week's photo edition, which flew to us from all the way across the pond. It's a good one, so check in tomorrow for all the details.

Yellow Canary #1, by Luke Stephenson

Wednesday greetings, collectors. I can finally feel things shifting into Summer mode, something I welcome with a sigh of relief. It's not as if things have exactly slowed down — we're moving offices (tomorrow!), preparing for the aforementioned Ornithology exhibition and I am off to Madrid on Monday for more photo fun at Photo Espana.

All this plus our ongoing 20x200 curatorial efforts adds up to a hectic pace. But I am most certainly enjoying the sunny days, long-lit evenings and summery treats like soft-serve ice cream and pie. (Who doesn't love pie?!)

Today's ornithological photographic treat comes to us from across the pond, where witty photographer Luke Stephenson has been granting his subjects, be they people or birds, equal importance. Yellow Canary #1 has quite an air about him, don't you think?

I've been besotted with Luke's birds for quite a while now. I fell for his Budgies series a bit over a year ago after seeing them on Meet Me in Ataxia a photography blog that's sadly gone dormant. Fortunately, Ms. Laurel Ptak has kept Luke on my radar via various posts about his projects on i heart photograph. Luke also puts his Flickr stream to good use, featuring himself, his friends and lots of goofy experiments involving all of them. He also presents sets of his various projects there too, which are a bit more browse-able than his admittedly more slick and professional portfolio site.

Luke's subjects are quite varied, but I find his consistency remarkable. He's obviously got a penchant for a specific composition and lighting, and beyond that, there is his bemused approach that is curious, fun-loving, often a bit profane and, most importantly to me, never condescending. In other words: I am a fan and was tickled pink when he agreed to add his charming Yellow Canary to the 20x200 menagerie.

It's my preference and good fortune that my menagerie is mostly two-dimensional, but I do have one beloved living creature in my midst. My pooch, Ms. Otter patiently awaits me, eager to enjoy the sunshiney day. I must tend to her and then I'm off to be briefed on our moving day plans.

I'll be back next week with a dispatch from Madrid. Until then, I recommend generous servings of art and ice cream for all!

The summer issue of Aperture features a story titled "Picturing the Iraq War Veterans" by curator Mary Panzer. The article compares the work of Nina Berman, James Nachtwey, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and Christopher Morris calling them "some of the strongest photographers working today." Berman who is represented by Jen Bekman and has a piece on 20x200 titled 9/11 2002 was included in the piece for her projects Purple Hearts and Marine Wedding.

Of Berman's work Panzer writes, "There is nothing intrusive or especially intimate about these images. Berman does not invite her subjects to let down their guard, but rather offers them a chance to be seen on their own terms." Later of the interviews Berman includes in her book Purple Hearts, she notes, "There is no redemptive value here, no glory. Almost everyone expresses some pride in having joined the military, and virtually all give a surprisingly blunt assessment of where they are now, and what their lives will be like from now on."'

Nina Berman's book: Purple Hearts
Berman's Prints: Jen Bekman Gallery
9/11 2002: 9/11 2002