Photographer Rob Larson Captures Pittsburgh's Roller Derby Scene

Rob Larson: Derby

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today's date: August 6, 2012


Rob Larson: Derby
709 Penn Gallery
709 Penn Avenue, downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District
August 31-October 7, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, August 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Gallery hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. / Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m - 8 p.m. / Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Free and open to the public.

Pittsburgh, PA:  Hip whip. Taking a knee. Grand slam. Rink rash. This is the unique vernacular roller derby, which is alive and well in the City of Champions.  Photographer Rob Larson beautifully captures this bawdy, theatrical sporting subculture, as well as the physical ramifications (like rink rash) found in Pittsburgh’s robust Roller Derby scene with his most recent photo exhibit Derby at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s 709 Penn Gallery.  This exhibit is free and open to the public.

They’re some of the toughest athletes you’ll ever meet. They don’t play on a field of unblemished grass or on a rink of glassy ice. They don’t sign million-dollar contracts. And they don’t have lucrative endorsement deals.
Roller derby is made up of tough, smart and fascinating women who work up a sweat, get bruised, and sometimes draw blood for no other reason than they love the sport. They are sisters, daughters, wives and mothers. They are teachers, designers, and small business owners. And they all skate to win.  Through the collection of portraits that make up Derby, Rob Larson captures the spirit and power of an attraction that has, much to the thrill of its fast-growing number of fans, gone from 70s Saturday afternoon camp to today’s serious adrenaline rush.

About Rob Larson
Pittsburgh-based photographer and mixed-media artist Rob Larson enjoys photographing urban landscapes, people and the suburban nights. This is followed by his interest in employing silk-screening, wheat-paste and spray paint to make art that he liberally covers in shellac. Schooled traditionally in photography, Rob focuses on more intense lighting and heavily geometric compositions to pull together images that tend to be more ambiguous with their stories and statements.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Rob Larson, email rob@roblarsonphoto.com or call 412-965-0579.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

GUNS'N'GIRLS: Photography by Rachel Nieborg & Ine Mulder

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


GUNS'N'GIRLS: Photography by Rachel Nieborg & Ine Mulder
709 Penn Gallery / April 27-June 10, 2012

The famed ‘still life’ of old masters is reinterpreted by two young Dutch artists: photographer Rachel Nieborg and designer Ine Mulder. The duo began working together on Girls’N’Guns in 2008 when Ine Mulder asked Rachel Nieborg to join her for shooting practice. The project evolved into a carefully crafted set recasting the still life paintings of the 17th century. Working with a metronome to fine tune the precision timing, one would literally shoot a gun while the other shot photographs. The images have not been edited with photo software, but capture the raw tension of stillness and movement, violence and beauty.

Their work has been displayed at Galerie Rademakers and is also on view at the photography museum, Foam, in Amsterdam. Ine Mulder graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven where she met Rachel Nieborg, a 2006 honors graduate of the Photo Academy in Amsterdam.

 On what most inspires and influences her photography, Rachel Nieborg writes: “A lot things influence my photography. I look around, observe and then something catches my eye and triggers the brain to do something with it: nature, a dance performance, or design and the news. I love form and structures of materials, calmness and quietness, but still a lot action--the search and travel within a picture or painting.

“I use to work in textiles, so the love for structures and materials are due to that, I believe.  I worked on new fabric collections for the clothing industry and so you visit the trend forecasting shows and musea…reflections of society. That is a way of looking and observing I still use in my photography.”  She notes, “I prefer not always tell of have a story next to the picture, because I like the viewer to have there own experience and to travel with and within the work when observing.”

GALLERY DETAILS
707 Penn Gallery is located on 707 Penn Ave. / Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District
Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.–5 p.m.
707 Penn Gallery is a Project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and is free and open to the public.

ALSO ON EXHIBIT
Global Navigators featuring work by Guido van der Werve, Karen Sargsyan, Folkert De Jong, Peter Bogers, Marnix de Nijs, Mark Boulos and Gerard Holthuis
Wood Street Galleries, SPACE and 707 Penn Gallery
Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.–5 p.m.
www.woodstreetgalleries.org
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Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Ocean Soul with National Geographic Photographer Brian Skerry at The Byham

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Today's date: January 19, 2012

Contact:
Veronica Corpuz
(412) 471-6082
corpuz@trustarts.org

Diana Roth
(412) 471-8717
roth@trustarts.org

National Geographic Live: “Ocean Soul” with Underwater Photographer Brian Skerry

Sunday, February 12, 2012, at 4:00 p.m, Byham Theater, 101 Sixth Street

Voyage across the earth’s oceans with Brian Skerry, one of National Geographic’s most seasoned underwater photographers, and discover a vast, hidden world beneath the waves. Brian Skerry will present his photographic journey and lecture, Ocean Soul, at the Byham Theater on Sunday, February 12, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. followed by a Q&A session and book signing. This lecture is a part of the National Geographic Live! speakers series*, a part of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents series, and is presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Tickets ($20-$40) may be purchased at the Box Office at Theater Square (655 Penn Avenue), online at www.trustarts.org, or by calling (412) 456-6666. To purchase 10 or more tickets at special discounted rates, please call group sales at (412) 471-6930.

Using his camera to communicate, Brian Skerry has spent three decades—and more than 10,000 hours underwater—telling the oceans’ stories. His images celebrate the mystery and beauty of the depths and offer portraits of creatures so detailed and intimate they sometimes appear to have been shot in a studio. Skerry dives eight months of the year, often in extreme conditions beneath Arctic ice or in predator-infested waters, and has even lived at the bottom of the sea to be close to his subjects.

Skerry’s National Geographic book, Ocean Soul, offers a powerful retrospective of Skerry’s photographs and showcases his ability to create images that blend strong aesthetic beauty with journalistic relevance. Skerry explains, “I fell in love with the sea as a child and I wanted to tell stories about all I saw underwater. I never cease to be amazed at the extraordinary encounters I have when I’m at sea.” Ocean Soul takes readers from the glacial waters of the North Atlantic, where harp seals face pressure from commercial hunting, to the balmy central Pacific, where Skerry’s camera caught evidence of damaged coral ecosystems actually rebuilding themselves.

When not in the field, Skerry is a passionate advocate for the oceans he loves to photograph. His riveting talks before audiences at TED, Harvard, The National Press Club, and London’s Royal Geographic Society reinforce his lifelong mission to build reverence for these exquisite landscapes and encourage protection of them for future generations of ocean lovers.

*National Geographic Live! speakers series, at the Byham Theater, also will feature Annie Griffiths: A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel, on Sunday, April 22, 2012, at 4:00 p.m.

Posted on behalf of Joanne Quinn-Smith by Joyce Kane.  Joyce is the Owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Teenie Harris Exhibit Runs Through April at the Carnegie Museum of Art

Teenie Harris, Photographer:

An American Story

@ Heinz Galleries

Carnegie Museum of Art

4400 Forbes Avenue, Pgh, PA 15213

October 29, 2011­–April 7, 2012