All photos © Abby Robinson.

Abby Robinson’s ongoing series, In Camera, is a look into the old photo studios throughout Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Vietnam “where the past, the present, the traditional and the contemporary collide and where painted backgrounds and props give clues into notions of class, taste and aspiration.” So many of these painted backdrops and props are being replaced by digital post-production techniques, but the details of Robinson’s colorful panoramas remind us of the culturally rich creative process of in-camera studio photography.

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© Rogelio López Marín (Gory)

Cuban artist Rogelio López Marín, also known as Gory, began his career as a painter, gaining recognition from the 1981 exhibition “Volume One” which signified the rise of the Cuban renaissance in visual arts. After working as a photographer for many years at Revolucion y Cultura magazine and winning awards for his photo essays, Gory put down his brushes and dove into the world of photography, manipulating the images by hand. He later used digital manipulations that distinguished his work. Curator and art critic Irinia Leyva says, “Gory’s photographic body of work is indebted to his paintings, establishing between the two media a feedback, a ‘give and take’ from the canvas to the camera and vice versa. His perspicacious eye can discover the most surreal situations in everyday reality, and by capturing them through his lens makes us gaze with fresh eyes.” Gory’s work is now on display at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, coordinated by the Southeast Museum of Photography, until February 4, 2012.

© Bud Force.

Photographer Bud Force shot this photo of a line worker training class hosted by the Texas Engineering Extension Service. Force explains how “the photograph’s composition is designed to show a relational level between sacrificing oneself for work in the hopes of a better economy and financial future.”

“When I compose, I often strive to bring an additional, supposedly unrelated, element into an image and draw a subliminal relationship between that element and the photo itself. When I saw these men training side by side, focused with such a concentration that they did not seem aware of anything outside of their exercise, it almost seemed somehow religious in nature,” he says. Force specializes primarily in adventure sports, travel and humanitarian aid issues. His new book, Urban Search & Rescue, was released nationally last month by TAMU Press.

© ACME Photo, 1944.

“Grunts” is military vernacular for United States Army or Marine foot soldiers who make up the bulk of the armed services. Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Panopticon Gallery presents “Grunts: The G.I. Experience” curated by Jim Fitts from December 7, 2011 – January 10, 2012.  This exhibition features images from the war in Korea by Harold Feinstein alongside images by Robert Capa and Press photographs from WWII.

Images in “Grunts” are not repeatedly produced heroic propaganda. Instead, they are “personal and very human,” says curator Jim Fitts, who hopes viewers will gain a better understanding and appreciation of the courageous soldiers. Photographs on display in this exhibition are courtesy Panopticon Gallery and Lee Gallery.

© Michael Levin

Over ten years ago Michael Levin began his photographic journey in the Pacific Northwest and has since broadened his geographic horizons to include Japan, Iceland, France and beyond. Though Levin’s photographs are made at a wide range of locations, the individual images are not necessarily about the specific place, but rather a moment in time and the experience of arriving there. Instead of seeking out a predetermined location, Levin travels and waits for a location to speak to him in a process that he describes more intuitive than logical. Levin’s exhibition, “Continuum,” opens on Dec. 16, 2011 at the photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will be on display until February 4, 2012.

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