Downtown Detriot

Ballroom, Fort Wayne Hotel

Luben Apartments

All photos © Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre

From the artists: “At the beginning of the 20th Century, the city of Detroit
developed rapidly thanks to the automobile industry.

“Until the 50’s, its population rose to almost 2 million people. Detroit was the 4th most important city in the United States.

“It was the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods.

“Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967. The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew. Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states. Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied.

“Since the 50’s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population.

“Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.”

More ‘Ruins of Detroit’.

All photos © Herve Demers

More at Herve Demers.

Nova Photographer Jon Horvath has achieved the Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award for his photograph ‘White Car, 2008′.

White Car (2008)

© Jon Horvath

The photograph is on display at the Print Center in Philadelphia as part of the Center’s 84th Annual International Competition: Photography!

Congratulations to Jon!

Nova and photographer Tom Hull have donated a medium sized (20″ by 16″) print of ‘Trailer’ to tomorrow’s ‘Forget Me Not’ charity auction in aid of Age Concern.

Trailer by Tom Hull

The auction features a wide variety of work appealing to a range of tastes and provides the opportunity for collectors to acquire some fantastic pieces. The list of lots.

Auction Details:

Date of Auction:  22nd April 2010, 6:30pm
Venue: The Worx, 10 Heathmans Road, Parsons Green, London SW6 4TJ

Our latest print is ‘In Memory of 12′ by Brighton-based photographer Wendy Pye:

© Wendy Pye

From the artist: “Beachy Head in south east England is known for its quintessential English scenery and also a well-known location for suicide attempts. ‘In Memory Of’ is the first photographic series of the project Beachy Head and documents the flower memorials found along Britain’s highest cliff edge. Through quality of light and feeling for nature, these memorials become symbolic of human fragility and our relationship with loss, tragedy and death.”

The print is available in our usual three sizes, starting from just £19 + p&p.

Nova and Nova photographer Ben Roberts donated a medium sized framed print of ‘Glen Feshie, 6:30am’ to the charity VSO UK for their auction and raffle at their Christmas Concert and Dinner.

Glen Feshie, 6:30am

Rachel Watts, VSO’s Events Manager, thanked Nova and Ben for the contribution: “Thank you again for your generous donation, it was wonderful to be able to display such a beautiful print at dinner and it contributed greatly to the £951, which was raised through the raffle.  To put your donation into context, £500 can train and provide initial funds to 10 HIV+ women in Mozambique to start their own business, giving them and their children income and hope, so we are incredibly grateful for this life-changing donation.”

In total the event raised £49,000 for VSO’s development work.

Normal blog service will resume on the 28th.

Our second exhibition of the day was a joint effort: Selected Photographs 2006-2009 by Jim Green and Akemi’s Place - Paintings and Prints by Natalie Abadzis.

Half of the space is occupied by Natalie’s delicate, intriguing vignettes which are beautifully displayed and contrast with Jim’s robust, graphical and luminous imagery which occupies the rest of the space.

The exhibition is at Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk Street, London, SE1 0BL and only runs until 3PM on the 24th November - so hurry!

10% of all artwork sold goes to Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Andy and I took a trip last week to see a couple of exhibitions.

First up was David Solomons’ ‘Happenstance’ - a retrospective of black and white ‘public’ photography by London-based David Solomons.

There are some forty images in the exhibition. Although most of the images on display were taken in London, there are a number of images from other locations. The quality of the imagery is high with few weak links. The images range from the quirky to the poignant, but all show Solomons’ eye for the decisive moment.

The exhibition is at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG. It runs until 27th November.

There’s also a book.

Our selection today is a “private photograph printed from abandoned black and white roll film found inside a Soviet military base”:

Part of ‘after the wall: traces of  the soviet empire’ a project by Eric Lusito.

More here.