I have a piece in this sick group show by/with the @abcnorio Darkroom Collective. I hope you’ll come join me at the opening this Friday, May Day from 6-9pm in industrial Red Hook. Grateful to be a small part of this statement about re-emerging as the new ABC building nears completion.
The collectors edition of Reuben Radding’s “Heavenly Arms,” signed and with a limited edition dust jacket, is available for purchase at redhookeditions.com
Distilled from ten years of Reuben Radding's photography from New York City's streets and beyond, Heavenly Arms is a meditation on human interconnectedness, conflict, and the musicality of American life. The 63 black & white photographs within create a poetic world of unanswered subjective questions, leading inevitably back to the viewer's own internal memories, associations, and desires. Heavenly Arms is Reuben Radding's first photo book.
Book Details:
Dimensions: 9.5 × 7 in
132 pages
Printed in Italy
2024
Design by Alexander Paterson-Jones
STUDENT WORK: Another excellent recent participant in my “Seeing Ourselves In The Street” workshops was @rwfrasier who joined us from the great state of New Hampshire, appearing here as both real and imagined. I think Robert came into the workshop feeling a little sheepish about where he resides and shoots, out of concern that it might not be the best source for “street” pictures. His initial efforts proved to us that there were a lot of possibilities there to experience and photograph life unfolding, he just had to surrender to what it does have, rather than focus on what it lacks. We also encouraged him to follow his initial attractions––to bars, and the interactions between people inhabiting the night. We encouraged him to get looser in his framing and to get closer. I feel like amazing things are about to happen in his photography. He’s stepping into his world in a different way than before, and it’s changed his whole sense of possibility.
Robert says, “I really can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed and learned from Reuben’s workshop. I’m seeing my work in a new way and feel more motivated than ever to keep going. Thoughtful, honest critique, and a genuinely inspiring experience.”
Some still think you need to be in New York to be in one of my workshops, but it is not true. They are entirely online and open to anyone. Hit the thing in my bio to register for spring or summer now. Let’s expand your sense of what’s possible.
STUDENT WORK: One of the students in my most recent “Seeing Ourselves In The Street” photo workshop was @mattbloom415 from San Francisco, whose color palate is tasty like candy and the scenes he renders find a way to bridge a kind of documentarian’s interest with unparaphrasable characters in counterpoint who seem to express something oddly universal. As is so often the case, pointing him towards stronger pictures was mostly just about identifying obstacles and giving him license to remove them. They come in the form of assumptions and sometimes conventional wisdom. Matt says, “Reuben is a fountain of knowledge and insight, but I never felt like he was teaching at me. Instead, his ideas seeped into my practice through each week’s free-flowing discussions and critiques, and through the follow-up emails he sent after each session. At the heart of it all is the idea that discovery is central to great photography, and that following our own curiosity will lead us to our best work. I’m heading back onto the streets with a greater sense of wonder, not only about the places I’m shooting but also about what my work might reveal to me.” I have one more slot open in my next May/June workshop and many slots open in July/Aug. Full info/registration in the obvious place don’t make me say it.
“Seeing Ourselves in the Street” photo workshops return in May/June. Raise the level of questions driving your photo practice by working with a group of aligned folks from anywhere in the world via Zoom. Link in my profile for registration.
