Fall Line Press

We couldn’t be happier to be unveiling the next batch of...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:42:00 -0500

We couldn’t be happier to be unveiling the next batch of Free Falls, our quarterly publication(s), this Thursday, Dec. 6, from 6-8pm at our space in Atlanta Photography Group Gallery.

It’s a holiday celebration, and we’ll be offering 10% off on our publications, including Kael Alford’s “Bottom of ‘da Boot” and Arthur Grace’s “America 101”.

This latest batch of Free Falls is our 6th consecutive release, and it marks the 4th and final effort from Carl Martin, the 3rd from William Boling, the 2nd from Nikita Gale, and the debut from Angela West, whose photograph is featured above.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Arthur Grace Interview

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:40:18 -0500

Arthur Grace Interview

Great to see Arthur Grace’s photo and book mentioned in...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:11:44 -0500

Great to see Arthur Grace’s photo and book mentioned in @nybooks this weekend!

Carl Martin’s 1st Free Fall is very close to selling...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:58:00 -0500

Carl Martin’s 1st Free Fall is *very* close to selling out. Pick up your copy today!

(via 03.Martin.01 : Fall Line Press, Atlanta, GA)

Critical Mass 2012

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:25:04 -0500

Critical Mass 2012:

MDM participated in judging Critical Mass this year - Thomas Jackson’s project was a fave!

A pallet of Arthur Grace books!

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:50:53 -0500

A pallet of Arthur Grace books!

Gearing up for the Decatur Book Festival

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:22:32 -0400

Oh blog, we have neglected you so… But we’ve been busy. In case you haven’t heard the news, we moved into our space at APG (Atlanta Photography Group) in the TULA Arts Center in Buckhead. We like our new space, and you should stop by to check it out soon. But be warned it’s still kind of a work in progress.

We’ve got several projects planned for the fall, so we’ll be updating the blog more regularly with events and photos of what’s coming up. To kick it all off, we’re going to be participating in the Decatur Book Festival next weekend (August 31st - September 2nd). This is the first year we will participate (other than being festival go-ers) and we couldn’t be more excited to get our name out there.

We’ll have a booth set up to display our first book (Bottom of da Boot by Kael Alford), our quarterly Free Fall publications and some self publications from our FLP friends and family. So come find us while looking at other great exhibitors! We’re going to have a few speakers at our booth, so watch for updates on that in the coming days.

In addition to the booth, publisher William Boling will be part of a panel discussion on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 entitled “The Importance of Small Press”. Could you think of a more fitting title? On the panel also in another Atlantan, Bruce Covey who publishes Coconut Press. The panel will be held at the Old Courthouse.

Tell your book-loving friends and come out to support this awesome festival. We’ll see you there!

“Taglines” for the 5th batch of Free Falls.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:47:16 -0400

“Taglines” for the 5th batch of Free Falls.

Great Signing with Kael Alford Last Night

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:17:21 -0400

Thanks to all for coming out last night and celebrating Kael Alford’s “Bottom of da Boot” (and the last event in the current Fall Line Press space)! Check out John E. Ramspott’s pics over on flickr.

timelightbox: “What is being lost on the coast of Louisiana is...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:12:18 -0400

timelightbox:

“What is being lost on the coast of Louisiana is more than a neighborhood, or a storm buffer. It’s a piece of our collective memory and a unique piece of heritage that defines us as a nation.”

Kael Alford is the recipient of the 2012 Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography (MPS Fund) Grant. The MPS Fund awards $5000 annually to a Gulf Coast photographer working on a long-term cultural documentary project.

Kael was awarded for her work “Bottom of da Boot: Losing the Coast of Louisiana.” In this body of work Kael documents the Native American communities of Pointe-aux-Chenes and Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. Alford’s portraits, tableaux and landscapes describe her maternal grandmother’s birthplace. While the project began out of personal curiosity, Alford’s work has developed into a multi-year documentary chronicling the rapid coastal land-loss that threatens the cultures and environment across southeast Louisiana.

Learn more about the award here. Visit Kael’s website here.

The Signing Begins!

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:55:14 -0400

The Signing Begins!

Q&A with Maury Gortemiller

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:23:15 -0400

In case you missed the memo, our interns are awesome. They go above and beyond in so many ways. Case in point - this interview intern Beau did with Maury Gortemiller who will release his last Free Fall this Thursday. Read on…

FLP: What was your overall experience being a Free Fall artist this past year?

MG: The past year was a wonderful experience on a number of levels. Photography is exploding in Atlanta, and Bill and Michael sensed the need for a platform for local photographers. They created a place where artists can share work and interact; Atlanta photographers are located throughout the metro area and at times have little opportunity for genuine discussion. Most people have access to the internet, but who wants to sit on a computer? I have a great deal of gratitude for the time spent with everyone at Fall Line, and I’m thankful to have been included.

FLP: Did you go into this project thinking of the four publications as one narrative or as four separate entities?

MG: Each issue is separate, with a beginning and an end, but I like to think that there’s a great deal of continuity from issues one through four. The way of looking, may particular type of visual contextualization, is a constant throughout, even though the circumstances of the making of the images changes. Incidentally, the photographs for the final issue were created in the months of April-June 2012 in Lexington, VA where I lived until recently.

FLP: The first image of yours I came across was a picture of a face projected on a ceiling fan. I myself have a fascination with ceiling fans and was wondering what you’re trying to say with this image.

MG: That image is a photograph of an old slide projected onto the ceiling of my boyhood home - it’s an image my father took of my mother. In helping my mother move from the house after 37 years of occupancy, I was interested in the memory of the place. For example, the chintzy, gold accents of a mundane item such as ceiling fan have a particular presence for me, due to familiarity and the memories, experiences associated with that very room. To the present home owner, of course, that fan means nothing. I wanted to portray a psychic attachment of sorts to the utilitarian.

FLP: The printing of your first issue was very interesting in the way you have to flip between two pages to see some images in whole. Is this simply form meeting function and a reference to Free Fall being printed material in book form?

MG: The sequencing is a reference to Beautiful Ecstasy by Michael E. Northrup (J&L Books, 2007).

FLP: Your second issue seems to have some art historical references, specifically John Baldessari and Richard Prince. Was this a theme for the issue or something relating to your larger body of work?

MG: The second issue was a bit different, in that images of casette singles and “repurposed” magazine advertisements appear alongside my more traditional images. The more photographs I look at, the more catholic I become in selecting what a photograph can be and how it can function.

FLP: Can you talk a little about your images of cassette tapes?

MG: It’s a consideration of a number of things. Foremost perhaps, it’s a consideration of the “phenomenon” of the cassette single as a cultural artifact, a marker of a particular time. I think of cassette singles as the last gasp of the various mass-produced analog music formats, right before the popularity of the compact disc. The imagery often entails a particular notion of masculinity: simultaneously macho and androgynous. I’m interested in pop culture items, and the meanings and associations we ascribe, collectively and individually, to merchandise.

They’re essentially pieces of junk, and I print the images large (40X50) so the deterioration of the cardboard is emphasized. The cardboard fibers take on an interesting texture at that scale, as do the Ben-Day dots of the graphic elements. Everything is writ lage, obviously, in a way that alters the viewing of the objects and gives them monumentality.

FLP: What are your thoughts on using flash? I’m talking specifically about the first and second to last image in your third issue. I know some photographers are completely against it and I was wondering whether you think it adds something to the photograph to whether it was just necessary to capture the image.

MG: I love the formal properties of flash for certain photographs. The pop of the strobe can instill ambiguity or an otherness to an image, and at the same time suggest an immediacy to the making of the picture. Of course I’m referring to a sense of immediacy or truth-to-appearance before the lens that can be as contrived as any other element of picture-making. The aesthetic of the on-camera flash suggests to viewers something about the making of the picture, the context of the image capture. The fact that some photographers find blatant flash use distasteful only increases my resolve.

FLP: Can you talk a little about photographers and artists who have influenced your work and why?

MG: Finding William Eggleston’s work in the mid-1990’s changed everything. Only then did I think about photography as a serious pursuit. Here was someone who recorded the common and decontextualized the familiar at the same time. In some ways, every image I make is an attempt to recreate, not Eggleston’s pictures, but the feeling of seeing his pictures for the first time: apparent randomness obedient to an almost imperceptible rhythm. Recently I’ve become acquainted with the work of Stacy Krantiz and Hannah Modigh and their representations of place.

FLP: Does teaching photography affect your work in any way?

MG: Absolutely - I’m always amazed at what students bring to the classroom, particularly those who have relatively little photography experience. It’s incredible what a little earnestness and sincerity can produce.

FLP: After going through your website and tumblr I’m interested in knowing whether you’re more interested in straight photography or taking a more conceptual approach.

MG: My work with Fall Line has concerned fairly straight images captures but I’m also interested in conceptual work. “The Competitive Apnea Project,” something I’ve been working on for five years, combines my early childhood photographs with newly-created staged images which depict a fictional account of my futile attempts to break the breath-holding world record. The series is a dialogue with a number of issues: responding to a familial legacy, pursuing an alternative form of art-making or expression with single-minded purpose, and re-contextualizing the visual phenomena of the vernacular snapshot. The genesis of the project concerns a 1964 Garry Winogrand photograph of my father, who at the time was performing as an underwater clown. True story!

Q&A with Nikita Gale

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:59:00 -0400

Chances are if you’re around the Atlanta art scene, you’ve bumped into Nikita Gale at some point. Not to mention all the recent press she’s been getting lately! We’re thrilled to have her as our next Free Fall artist, and excited for you to see her first issue. To wet your appetite, read a little more about Nikita below, and join us to celebrate on July 12th from 6 to 9PM.

FLP: Tell us a little about yourself…

NG: I like art, summer nights, winter mornings, Georgia, being in the mountains, e.e. cummings poems, looking at NASA space photos and 80s movies… And other things, but those are several of them.

FLP: What excites you most about being a part of Free Fall?

NG: Wow… everything about it? Having the freedom to create a project specifically meant for print is really exciting to me, but I think the part that is most exciting is just having the opportunity to be included in a project with so many other incredible photographers: Maury, Michael, Carl, Laura and Bill. It’s amazing, and I’m kind of in awe that it’s even happening.

FLP: You call yourself a photo-based conceptual artist, so what’s the differentiation for you from being a “photographer”?

NG: I definitely do a lot of non-photography work - work that is a lot more text- and language-based that can’t really be considered photography, so I think the term photo-based conceptual art encompasses the majority of what I do.

FLP: What’s your idea or concept for your Free Falls?

NG: I think I’m going to be all over the place with my Free Falls. I usually work based on whatever ideas are really relevant to me at the time that I’m creating work, so one issue may be heavily text-based and another may be all straight photographs. I want my Free Falls to be intuitive like the rest of my work.

FLP: Favorite photo books?

NG: This is a tough question… There are so many, but my little brother got me Annie Liebovitz’s A Photographer’s Life for Christmas last year. That is a book that I can go back to again and again. Really beautiful and simple.

Mark your calendars for July 12th!

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:51:40 -0400

That’s the date for our next Free Fall launch. We’re excited to kick-off another year and start a new batch of photographers. We can’t give all our secrets away, but the new crop of artists will be more conceptual. And who better to start off with then…. Nikita Gale!

In the coming weeks, you’ll learn a more about Nikita, and Maury Gortemiller whose final issue will be released in July. Stay tuned, and pencil us in for July 12th from 6 to 9 PM to celebrate the new releases!

New Arrivals

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:00:05 -0400

The first one you’ve already heard about loyal FLP fans! We have copies of “Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South.” It’s a 30 minute dvd produced by One Production Place. It examines the photography of Magnum’s most controversial and prolific member as he gathers images for his first commission by a major American art museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The dvd retails for $19.99, and you can watch a clip here.

Secondly, we just received a few copies of Paul Schiek’s new book, Dead Men Don’t Look Like Me. Published by TBW Books, the book contains 20 duotone plates of men re-photographed from 1950’s-era mug shots Paul’s friend found in an abandoned Georgia prison. The book retails for $30.00 - stop by to check it out!

Bon Voyage, Martin Parr

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:27:00 -0400

Big thanks to our friends from Turner, CNN Photos, and other FOFL (friends of Fall Line) for wishing Martin Parr a bon voyage on Friday. Cheers to John E. Ramspott for capturing these photos. And pick-up a copy of the DVD while you’re at it!

"kidOH crashed out at Fall Line Press after a long day of Martin Parr" - David Holloway

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:24:40 -0400

"kidOH crashed out at Fall Line Press after a long day of Martin Parr" - David Holloway

Meet Martin Parr

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 22:50:00 -0400

Fall Line is excited about Friday’s airing of the first documentary to focus on photographer Martin Parr, entitled “Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South”. We were delighted to team-up with One Production Place and F-Stop Films on this project. If you missed Thursday’s screening at the High Museum, we hope you’ll tune in Friday to see the film on Georgia Public Broadcasting at 8:30pm.

And we hope you can join us at the Fall Line space on Friday at 5pm for a beer and a chat with Martin. Bring your books for signing, or pick up a signed DVD while you’re with us!

Until then, here’s a review of the film from ArtsAtl.

All best,

Fall Line Press

New Arrivals from Laura Noel

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:49:32 -0400

In addition to getting in our first hardcover book, Bottom of da Boot by Kael Alford, we’ve been busy getting books from local artists we think our loyal FLP family will enjoy. The newest additions to the bookstore are three books by Laura Noel. Laura was our first ever Free Fall artist, and needless to say we’re big fans of hers.

Currently, we have All’s Fair Volume 2, Law and Order Gets Me Through the Night and Instant Stories - a new project you should definitely check out. For more on Laura’s work, check out her website, and stop by your favorite photobook store to see these in person!

nikitagale: So I’m not saying you HAVE to be excited about it,...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:57:35 -0400

nikitagale:

So I’m not saying you HAVE to be excited about it, but you know, it wouldn’t be bad if you were.

Nikita Gale x Fall Line Press. Coming soon.

Fall Line Press

We couldn’t be happier to be unveiling the next batch of...

Arthur Grace Interview

Great to see Arthur Grace’s photo and book mentioned in...

Carl Martin’s 1st Free Fall is *very* close to selling...

Critical Mass 2012

A pallet of Arthur Grace books!

Gearing up for the Decatur Book Festival

“Taglines” for the 5th batch of Free Falls.

Great Signing with Kael Alford Last Night

timelightbox: “What is being lost on the coast of Louisiana is...

The Signing Begins!

Q&A with Maury Gortemiller

Q&A with Nikita Gale

Mark your calendars for July 12th!

New Arrivals

Bon Voyage, Martin Parr

"kidOH crashed out at Fall Line Press after a long day of Martin Parr" - David Holloway

Meet Martin Parr

New Arrivals from Laura Noel

nikitagale: So I’m not saying you HAVE to be excited about it,...

Carl Martin’s 1st Free Fall is very close to selling...