Crib Notes

At dusk on Saturday July 25, Opal Gallery in Little Five Points will present an outdoor screening of The Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The 1928 silent film, which portrays the tragic final days of the life of Joan of Arc, is considered a cinematic masterpiece for its provocative theme and the groundbreaking use of the actor’s facial expressions as a communicative medium.

Lost for many years, the film has often been screened with accompanying live music since its rediscovery. At this rare Atlanta showing, the music will be provided by Hubcap City (from Belgium), who will be joined for the event by former Smoke cellist Brian Halloran, who has rarely played since they disbanded.

Hubcap City (fB) members Bill Taft and Will Fratesi were both part of Smoke, the highly respected avant-garde musical group fronted by the late singer and Atlanta legend Benjamin. Smoke ended following Benjamin’s death from AIDS-related complications in 1999, and Taft and Fratesi eventually formed Hubcap City (fB).

According to Taft, “Hubcap City’s music is actually based a lot on chord progressions I learned from [Smoke member] Todd Butler. He was able to combine Waylon Jennings and Burt Bacharach, and come up with great sounds.” Any hopes of a more comprehensive Smoke reunion were further diminished by the untimely passing of guitarist Butler in 2004. “This is the first time I have ever tried to play music by Smoke since it ended,” says Taft. “I guess I always tried to run away from tragedy in my past.”

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Andy

If you missed the opening reception for Thomas Dozol’s photo show, “I’ll Be Your mirror” last night at Opal Gallery in L5P, you still have plenty of time to go check it out. The show runs through Sat., Jan. 10, 2009.

It all started with the landscape of the flushed skin, the blood rushing to the surface, creating patterns both involuntary and singular. I wanted to capture people raw and unguarded: looking in the mirror at the red triangles marking my cheeks after a long shower, I knew I had found my direction. By allowing me into the intimacy of their bathroom, my subjects have already let their guard down. I then tried to disappear as much as possible, to let rituals unfold undirected and find those fleeting moments of purity when one still feels washed anew.

–Thomas Roman Dozol, October 2008

Dozol ’s portrait series “I’ll Be Your Mirror” reveals the human body right after a shower. Each portrait examines a unique moment of contemplation and self-reflection and explores boundaries between intimacy and familiarity. By disappearing as much as possible into the intimate surroundings of each subject, Dozol allows rituals to unfold undirected and captures an authentic and unguarded moment.

Caroline

Dozol was born in Martinique. His photographs have been in numerous international publications such as, Interview, Paper, Vogue Paris and LID. After a few years working as a stage actor in Paris, he moved to New York in 2002 where he participated in the formation of the cabaret act, The Citizens Band by documenting their first show at Deitch projects. His curatorial projects include the founding of the One Wall gallery, an itenerent and ephemeral gallery project that started with Paysages Intimes; a photography installation by Julien Magre. His most recent, Still/Life photos by Helena Christensen, took place at the Colette Gallery in Paris, France. He currently lives and works in New York City.

Dozol is also known to denizens of the Athens/Atlanta music scene as R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe’s partner. Many of the subjects of Dozol’s portraits in “I’ll Be Your Mirror” are musicians as well.

(Photos by Thomas Dozol)

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All Photos by Carl Martin

CARL MARTIN: Photographs 1986-2007 is a comprehensive look at the work of Athens photographer Carl Martin, that was curated by recent Athens transplant and Interpol drummer Samuel Fogarino at Opal Gallery in L5P and runs through August 2.

This collection features 32 of of Martin’s photographs spans twenty-one years of his life spent between New York City and Athens, GA. His unique awareness and fascination with the world around him resonates in the loose comic geometry of his lens. The range of subjects is not limited to a particular typology, but simply what was being seen, “the way things are.”

The following interviews with Carl Martin and Sam Fogarino were conducted over the phone and in person on June 19 as the show was being installed.

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