The Louis Draper Project
I want to write a few words about how excited I am to be working for the preservation trust of photographer Louis Draper.
This is a story that is going to take a long slow while to tell but over the coming months we are going to try to share our experience of discovering and preserving Mr. Draper’s photography and we are going to do what we can to get the word out about this incredible individual. A native Richmonder, Draper moved to New York City in 1957 and, as a young photographer, was a peer to many important figures from New York’s cultural and artistic scenes and eventually became an innovator, educator, and Civil Rights activist. In short, we hope to bring some long overdue recognition to a man who spent his life refining and sharing his knowledge of photography. And it should prove to be exciting for anyone with an interest in 20th c. photography or the Civil Rights movement or photography upon or New York City photographers or Harlem in particular, or any of a dozen other visual and aesthetic threads that can be found in such an expansive life’s work.
EXHIBITION: Taking Liberties
Just in time for the 2012 presidential election as well as the release of Steven Spielberg’s Richmond-filmed “Lincoln,” Candela Books + Gallery presents Taking Liberties, a selection of photographs from Virginia photographer Greta Pratt. The exhibition draws on several series of her work including “Using History,” her portraits of The Association of Lincoln Presenters, called “Nineteen Lincolns,” “The Wavers,” which document Liberty Tax Service employees, and the most recent “Trail Maids.
PRESS: Sunburn | Style Weekly
Burning Bright
Posted on Sep 11, 2012
WITH HAND-BUILT CAMERAS, OLD PAPER AND IMMENSE PATIENCE, CHRIS MCCAW CREATES SEARINGLY BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS.
By MELISSA SCOTT SINCLAIR, from Style Weekly, September 12, 2012
BOOK RELEASE + EXHIBITION: Sunburn
Sunburn is now available for purchase at candelabooks.com! Candela’s third book release, in collaboration with Chris McCaw and Scout Design, features a collection of forty-three extraordinary images with essays by Katherine Ware of the New Mexico Museum of Art and Allie Haeusslein of Pier 24 Photography. In Notes on Watching Shadows Move in this volume, McCaw writes, “During [this project], I’ve become attuned to the reality that we’re all running around on a spinning marble orbiting a fiery ball. It’s that simple and amazing, but we rarely give ourselves time to ponder this.”
ACQUISITIONS: UnBound!
The first annual invitational and juried exhibition, UnBound!, was a success! Ticket and raffle sales at the blow-out culminating event on Friday, July 20th, 2012 allowed us to acquire a whopping eleven works from the exhibition to found the new Candela Collection.
EXHIBITION: UnBound!
Candela Books + Gallery is excited to announce our inaugural summer invitational exhibition, featuring work from over 50 contemporary fine art photographers! Friday June 1, 5-9pm, Candela Gallery will open UnBound!
The UnBound! exhibition and UnBound! gala event will raise proceeds in order to purchase select works from the exhibition. Purchased works will subsequently be featured in Candela’s newly-founded UnBound! Collection. The mission of the UnBound! Collection will be to support photographers through the purchase and collection of original photographic work while also actively pursuing opportunities to donate said work to notable art institutions.
EXHIBITION: Julio Mitchel
We are proud to announce our upcoming exhibition of photography by photographer Julio Mitchel, opening April 6th, 2012 and running through May 26th, 2012, at Candela Books’ newly renovated gallery in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
OPEN CALL: UnBound!
Candela Books’ inaugural invitational exhibition, Unbound, will be an annual event featuring work from a wide range of contemporary fine art photographers. The Unbound exhibition and its associated Unbound event, will raise proceeds which will be used to purchase select works from the exhibition. Works purchased through this event by Candela will subsequently be featured in Candela’s newly founded Unbound Collection.
EXHIBITION: Gita Lenz
We are proud to announce our upcoming exhibition of photography by New York photographer Gita Lenz, opening February 3rd, 2012 and running through March 31, 2012, at Candela Books’ newly renovated gallery in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
BOOK RELEASE + EXHIBITION: Salt & Truth
Candela Books is proud to announce our upcoming exhibition of photography by Shelby Lee Adams, opening December 1, 2011 and running through January 28, 2012, at Candela Books’ newly renovated gallery in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
BOOK SIGNINGS: Salt & Truth
D.A.P. will be hosting a book signing for Salt & Truth, by Shelby Lee Adams,at the ICP Bookstore in New York City on November 18th, 2011. More information to be on the ICP Bookstore website soon.
ON PRESS: Salt & Truth is in Production!
We were traveling last week to be on press for Salt & Truth. It was a great pleasure to work with Shelby Lee Adams on the printing of his fourth book and first published by Candela Books.
We once again printed with Meridian Printing in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Working with Danny Frank was a pleasure and at the same time as our book was on the press, Lee Friedlander was on the neighboring press producing a 400+ page book of his self-portrait work. That was a little mind-blowing really.
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS: Appointments Available at Photo Lucida
Gordon Stettinius will be in Portland during Photo Lucida, April 14-17 and will be available for portfolio reviews if you have a book project you want feedback on. If you are interested in having him see your work contact Gordon directly at to see about his availability.
ANNOUNCING: Salt & Truth by Shelby Lee Adams
Candela Books is very proud to announce our upcoming collaboration with Shelby Lee Adams to publish his fourth book, Salt & Truth.
This new release is presently scheduled for October 2011, and will be followed by an exhibition in Candela Books’ new gallery space in Richmond, Virginia. Several exhibitions, both national and international, are being scheduled to follow the release of the book. Distribution will be handled by Distributed Art Publishers.
PRESS: Gita Lenz | Richmond Arts Review
By Amy Ritchie
Richmond Arts Review
March 15, 2011
On January 20th of this year, Gita Lenz died in New York, 100 years old, having just witnessed the first published monograph of her photographs. She had produced no new work since the 1960s, had not exhibited since the 50s, and had been wiped clean from the slate of art history until her path serendipitously crossed those of Timothy Bartling and his friend Gordon Stettinius, photographer and founder of Candela Books, a Richmond-based press devoted to printing quality publications of the photographic arts.
PRESS: Gita Lenz | NPR
The Unknown Photographer, Remembered
By Claire O’Neill, NPR’s The Picture Show, February 17, 2011
Gita Lenz (1910–2011)
I am very sorry to relate the recent passing of New York photographer, Gita Lenz.
Gita died peacefully on Thursday, January 20th, 2011 at a nursing home in New York City.
Gita Lenz lived most of her life in Greenwich Village on the corner of Carmine and 7th Avenue. From the 1940s through the mid-1960s, Gita created a body of work that withstands comparison to many of the better known photographers of the time. A self-described “Sunday photgrapher” in the 1940s, her work was often characterized by an interest in the city and life around her. While the social documentary tradition definitely had a distinct influence early on, Gita would soon take an interest in abstraction, isolating aspects both in nature and in the urban environment, stripping away details, framing images unconventionally and adding new depth and meaning to mundane and dilapidated subjects. Gita would go on to work professionally for commercial and editorial clients in the 50s and 60s.
BOOK RELEASE: Photographs by Gita Lenz
Candela Books is proud to announce the release of its first title, Gita Lenz: Photographs. The book release coincides with an exhibition of vintage black and white photographs by Gita Lenz at Gitterman Gallery in New York City. The exhibition will open with a reception and book release on Wednesday, September 22nd from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through Saturday, November 20th.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Candela Books is excited to finally celebrate the release of its first book on Wednesday, September 22nd from 6 to 8.pm at Gitterman Gallery in New York City.
WELCOME
After finally bringing its first book to market on September 22nd (see upcoming events), Candela books will be actively seeking work for our next calendar year’s projects. We intend to publish 2-3 books in 2011 and potentially more in subsequent years. We are definitely open to submissions alongside the couple of projects we are currently considering. I also expect to be on the road for several major photography events this year.