AS220 Media Arts is proud to announce the Photo Lecture Series: a monthly program designed to enrich the Media Arts community through open conversations and slide lectures with local and visiting artists focusing on their experiences working in the medium of photography.

Join us Tuesday, May 1st, at 7:30pm when Massachusetts-based photographer Eddy Pula share his images and ideas.  Eddy Pula is a self-described "photographer working in the streets and parks and living rooms and rec centers and convenience stores and hair salons and beaches and race tracks and office buildings and diners and barns and airplane hangers of America."

Check out Eddy's website!

The Media Arts Lab is located at 131 Washington St, #202, Providence RI.  The AS220 Media Arts Photo Lecture Series is free and open to the Public.

Looking for a place to show new work? Have contact sheets you just found? Searching for a group to constructively critique your photos? Curious about AS220 and/or it's Photo facilities/members? Come to AS220 Photo Community Critique! Starting this Sunday, AS220 Photo will be hosting community critique every last Sunday of the Month! No need to be a member of AS220 to come.

If you're working on a current body of work, this is a great opportunity to present your work, bounce off ideas, and receive feedback and constructive criticism from other local photographers. Please bring your sketches, contact sheets, proofs, prints, hard drives, etc. to our next meeting.

Be sure to spread the word! What: A Photo Critique Where: Mercantile Block Studio 202, 131 Washington Street, Providence, RI When: This Sunday, March 25, 1-4 PM Who: You! Price: Free!

AS220 Cottage Industries Open House Tonight from 6-7PM

At the Mercantile Block, 131 Washington St - Entrances on Lucie Way (building rear)

Come on by to visit us at our new digs in Room #202 at Mercantile!

Meet members, learn how to get involved, hear about our classes and see our new space

Also: Omega C760 Enlarger for sale--$100/OBO Photo frames for sale by donation: sizes vary

See you tonight!

Come on over Camera Heads! This Tuesday, Feb.7th from 6-7pm join us for our Monthly Cottage Industries Open House right here at AS220!

Every first Tuesday of the month we open the doors and invite all you lovely people into our humble little photo lab to learn more about what we do here at AS220 Photo.


This month you're in for a special treat as we bust out the Polaroid (ok, Fuji) Film for a round of Valentine/Anti-Valentine's day portraits! Bring props! Bring pets! Bring friends! Or bring your best scowl and your favorite death metal t-shirt and proudly pass on all this candy and flowers nonsense.

Here at AS220 Photo we love to kick it analog, but we don't fear change either! So stop by and walk the line between photo past and photo future with a sweet Polaroid portrait, a peek at our digital photo lab and a tour of our darkroom! Then, stick around and visit our Cottage Industry neighbors in the Printshop and FabLab!

As always, the monthly Cottage Industries Open Houses are FREE to all. We'd love to see you, so drop by the Mercantile Block at 131 Washington Street and visit AS220 Photo in Studio 207. Learn more about the NEW and totally awesome classes we're hosting this Spring and find out how you can be a part of Providence's very own photo community!

We can't wait to meet you!

This Sunday, Nov.20th AS220 PHOTO invites you to join the conversation for our first Open Critique and Photo Discussion Group! We know there are a lot of photographers out there looking for a place to share and show their work and gain feedback from fellow shutter snappers and lens lookers, and we're excited to provide a supportive and diverse environment for photographers at all levels.


At AS220 Photo, it is our mission and goal to offer opportunities and resources to all artists, and a vibrant and varied community is just one of those resources we can provide! Our hope is that though these monthly, free discussion groups, we can continue to build that community and create connections among local photographers working towards different goals and to gain a better understanding of all the different ways artists use photography to express their ideas.

Join the conversation this Sunday from 1-4pm at AS220 Photo in Mercantile Block studio 207 on 131 Washington St. Ring "207" on the call box. Bring work, bring friends and bring an open mind! We can't wait to see you and learn more about all the amazing art you are making!


In the meantime, AS220 Photo also has a slew of classes coming up this winter. This is just a sample, but visit AS220's online store for class details and descriptions or contact photo@as220.org for more info.

Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011
1-4pm / FREE
Open Photo Critique / Discussion Group
One Session Workshop

Wednesday, Nov.23, 2011
7-10pm/ $45
Alternative Process Vol.3: Gum Bichromate
One Session Workshop

Wednesday, Nov.30, 2011
6-9pm / $50
Photo Restoration
One Session Workshop

Sunday, Dec.4, 2011
12-4pm / $40
Digital SLR Workshop
One Session Workshop

Thursday, Dec.8, 2011
7-10pm / $50
Introduction to the 35mm Camera
Workshop Session 1 of 2

Saturday, Dec.10, 2011
12-4pm / $50
Introduction to Studio Lighting
One Session Workshop

Saturday, Dec.10, 2011
5-8pm / $75
Introduction to the Black and White Darkroom
Workshop Session 1 of 2

Sunday, Dec.18, 2011
1-4pm / FREE
Open Photo Critique / Discussion Group
One Session Workshop

Greetings Glass Negative Fans!

Can you believe it's been a full year since we first debuted prints from the glass negative collection at Providence City Hall?! Since then, "REDISCOVERED" has traveled all over Providence, into Boston, through the Photo Lottery and is landing for it's first birthday at the Sandywoods Arts and Agriculture Co-Op in Tiverton, RI.


You may remember the story behind this incredible project; the countless hours we photo nerds spent in the Providence Public Library Special Collections dusting glass plate negatives, meticulously assigning each it's own, special catalog number, photographing them and nestling them in their new, archival grade envelopes and padded boxes, and of course the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities grant that made it all possible.....

You may have seen one or two of our public exhibitions, or perhaps you've perused the online gallery, where all 1200 images are now digitally available to admire and to purchase! That's right. Any image in the collection can be made into a real-life, genuine sliver gelatin print, made lovingly by one of our Key Members right here in the Paul Krot Community Darkroom.


We are so proud of this project and are incredibly excited to be showing NEW prints from the collection (along with some fan favorites) at the Sandywoods Co-Op Gallery this Saturday, Oct.8th from 5-8pm. Please join us and see the beautiful space the Sandywoods group has built from the ground up, meet photo Key Members and learn more about this fascinating collection from Rhode Island Historical Society Graphics Archivist and Glass Negative Project Humanities Scholar James DaMico, who will be giving a special talk at 6:30.

Contact photo@as220.org for more info, or visit the Glass Negative Project website to learn more! Browse the gallery and find your favorites, then come on down to Tiverton and join us for an old fashioned photographic birthday party like no other!

The zero hour is upon us, i.e. September 24th., 6pm, when the doors to AS220's 5th Biennial Photo Lottery at 115 Empire St. finally open & the photo frenzy begins.

You got your skinny jeans on, cargo shorts or a dress/skirt/pants, whatever, your hands grubby & somewhat moist in anticipation, clutching either a short stack of crumpled/freshly minted US currency, a limber credit/debit card, a folded personal check or (for you) preferably an ID ready to show and claim your advance purchased ticket for this year's latest & greatest version of the Photo Lottery fundraiser!

If you've done this before, then you KNOW what it's about & how it goes, if not, prepare yourself! Sharpen those elbows (just kidding) & that eyesight & dash to the stage area, where you come up for a ticket, once you've gone through the gantlet & your head swims, turning this way & that way, trying to make sense of all the photos on the wall, hung salon style, varying in size, style and content & yes, one of them will be yours!




Can you stand it?

Will it be the one and only King, during his G.I. days?
Lawdamercy!
Or that of the Mother of Punk, the goddess herself, Patti Smith, shot and donated by Richard McCaffrey?
Or how about an image by one of my favorite photographers & role models: Jock Sturges!
Perhaps an image by AS220 Photo's Patron Saint: Paul Krot?
Or Henry Hornstein, the inimitable Mr. Hornstein, photo geek extraordinaire!
Or Jessica Lange! She's a movie star & a photographer too!

And lest we forget, NAN GOLDIN...no big deal. Wait. YES IT IS!!

Have you bought your ticket yet?

C'mon! Do it! Free yourself from the pack, remember, how George W. Bush said that our obligation as citizens was to go shopping, well, shop for a ticket. Now!

Pardon my gushing, but, it's for a really good cause & the generosity that photographers have clearly exhibited (pun intended) doth warm the cockles of one's heart & renders lachrymose peepers & I can't help but feel grateful/honored to be part of this event/blog post this year. For full disclosure, I'd been wanting to do this for a while, having arrived in Providence about six years ago. This time, I initially donated a small print, one of my favorite images from my first photo shoot w/ model, then, feeling further inspired by the work of others, donated two additional prints & am really glad that they're catalysts too now for a good cause.

As Washington cuts off support for the arts as a tribute to The Gipper, we've got Reaganomics in effect & not the 'trickle down economics' kind, but the one where government is taken off of (the) people's back by it cutting off (their) benefits, it's inspiring and humbling to see the people rise to the occasion and support endeavours such as this one, funds for which will enable AS220's Photo Dept. to continue serving the community.

So, buy that ticket, now, tell your friends, borrow the $ from your mortgage, kid's piggy bank, credit/debit card, partner or parent if you must. It's for a good cause & it will look really good on your wall.

Post written by AS220 Photo Member and Empire St. resident Davyde X. Photos by AS220 Photo Members Bryant Moscote and Krystal Grow.

AS220's Photo Lottery always brings in some big names in photography, and sometimes those big names come with a dose of controversy and a story that challenges our interpretation of what art truly is.

AS220 has always been a haven for the controversial, and as an Unjuried, Uncensored art space, we couldn't be happier to have the work of photographer Jock Sturges included in the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery, happening this Saturday, Sept.24th from 6-9pm at AS220's Main Gallery at 115 Empire Street in Providence. Sturges has been a long time supporter of our egalitarian approach to art and has donated work to past Photo Lotteries and we are incredibly grateful to have his support this time around too.

An original print from Jock Sturges is on it's way to AS220 and we cannot wait to see what he has chosen to send us, and what YOU could win this Saturday at the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery!

Sturges has honed his skills for over thirty years and has ruffled plenty of feathers along the way. His "controversial" style of capturing an abundance of nude women and children has been compared to and denounced in a similar manner to the work of Sally Mann. Despite an FBI raid of his studio and seizure of his negatives, prints and photographic equipment in the 1990's, Sturges work has gained a notoriety and widespread recognition for not only his subject matter, but for the beauty and sensitivity his images portray, a quality the FBI clearly missed among absurd allegations of child pornography.

Sturges mainly shoots with a large format 8x10 view camera, creating lush black and white or color portraits gracefully depicting humans as naturally as possible. He is certainly right to hold true to his vision in investigating bodies which are at their peak point of change. For many of his shoots, Sturges traveled to naturalist colonies and nudist camps where his models and subjects were truly comfortable with themselves and their environment, giving his photos a serenity and a calmness that has come to define his work far more than his haphazard brush with the authorities.

This Saturday, Sept. 24th, AS220 Photo will be proudly displaying one of Jock Sturges beautiful photographs. Tickets are on sale here! Buy your tickets now for your chance to take home a Sturges original or one of over 150 other fabulous pieces in this year's Photo Lottery!

We can not contain our excitement!

We have just gotten confirmation that a very well known artist, no, living MASTER has donated work to this years Photo Lottery!

Are you ready?

Nan Goldin!

That's right!

Goldin's work is held by private collectors, museums and galleries all over the world. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the late 70s, and quickly became one of photographic history's very important people. Her intimate portraits of her circle of friends illustrate a world of both pain and loss, beauty and joy.

Her work is often more intimate when viewed in person, and is frequently shown in the format of a slide show, set to the music of the Velvet Underground. Common themes in Goldin's work are: love, gender, domesticity, abuse, drug use, and sexuality. Her usage of intimate subject matter is universal and shows the simple struggle of humanity that we all readily relate to.


She was presented the 2007 Hasselblad Award and is represented in America by Matthew Marks Gallery since 1992 and Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris. Nan Goldin splits her time, living and working in both New York and in Paris France.

We would show you the piece that is available in the Photo Lottery, but we don't know which one it will be yet! Goldin herself is selecting the piece she wants to contribute to the Photo Lottery and it is being shipped directly to AS220 Photo! We will save a place on the gallery wall for her piece, and if you draw the lucky number we will either send you the piece as soon as it arrives, or, if you're lucky enough to be local AND win an original Nan Goldin print, we will alert you when it arrives and you can come down to AS220, pick it up and take it home!

We're absolutely ELATED to include a piece from Nan Goldin, in the 2011 Photo Lottery. For a single $125 ticket you could win her print or one of over 150 other spectacular works in this year's show! Purchase tickets to the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery online or at the AS220 gallery on the day of the event, this Saturday Sept. 24th 6-9pm. Come down and mingle with Providence's photo community, party and support AS220 Photo!

Every ticket is a winner, and this year, you could WIN BIG!

Henry Horenstein quite literally wrote the book on photography. His "Black and White Photography" book is still used in most introductory photo classes today, including AS220 Photo's own Intro to the 35mm Camera and Intro to the Darkroom classes. He's published more than a dozen other books for bodies of work he has produced over the last three decades of his photography career.



Horenstein studied and still works as a photo professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been showcased across the country and around the world, and has covered subjects such as sea life, dogs, friends and family, country music, the nude, horse races and burlesque.

We're ecstatic to include a piece from an artist as diverse as Henry Horenstein in the 2011 Photo Lottery. For a single $125 ticket you could win a print of your own! Purchase tickets to the 5th Biennial Photo Lottery online or at the AS220 gallery on the day of the event, this Saturday Sept. 24th 6-9pm. Come on down, support AS220 photo and bring home your own piece of photo history!