The Regulars - Book Signing and Lecture
Wednesday September 23, 2009 from 7:30 – 9:00
The Pen & Pencil Club
1522 Latimer St.
Philadelphia, PA
215-731-9909
Renowned photographer/bartender Sarah Stolfa will discuss her photo series, "The Regulars," a set of portraits taken of customers at McGlinchey's bar in Philadelphia. The series was published in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and is now the subject of a new book. One of Stolfa's portraits hangs on the club's walls. Stolfa will also talk about her newest body of work exploring the American physical and cultural landscape.
Personal Views:
Contemporary Photographic Portraiture in Philadelphia
September 16 - November 14, 2009
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 6:00-8:00 pm
With Personal Views, Gallery 339 presents a sample of the outstanding photographic portraiture that is currently being made in Philadelphia-area artists. While Philadelphia has always counted talented portrait photographers among its artistic ranks, the number of local photographers receiving national and international recognition for their portrait work has reached a notable level. Highly praised recent books by Jessica Todd Horper (Interior Exposure), Zoe Strauss (America) and Sarah Stolfa (The Regulars), are just one sign of this current attention. Other emerging artists in Personal Views, Justyna Badach, Rita Bernstein and Nadine Rovner, are similarly seeing their work recognized through local and national awards, competitions and exhibitions. And further adding to the city’s gravity in this genre is the recent arrival of renowned portrait photographer Andrea Modica, who took a teaching position at Drexel University. Madica is already having an impact on the local photography community through her teaching activities, exhibitions and workshops.
While these artists are not joined by a single movement or aesthetic view, the convergence of so much talent and strong work and the visibility of these artists through their books, exhibitions and other projects has created a palpable sense of momentum in local photography and a greater public interest in portraiture. Though it remains to be seen if this is the creating of a wave or the beginning of an even broader development of talented artists, the depth and diversity of the work in Personal Views bodes well for the latter. While these artists are contemporary in their sensibilities, their images are neither trendy nor fleeting; instead they unfold slowly and resonate deeply. The same can be hoped for in their long-term effect on Philadelphian photography.
Gallery 339
339 South 21st Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.731.1530
info@gallery339.com
HOURS:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
www.Gallery339.com
Fleischer Art Memorial “Wind Challenge” Exhibition
Established in 1978, the Challenge Exhibition Series is a regional juried competition that is committed to enriching and expanding people's lives through art. Several three-person shows, held each year from September through May, feature the work of regional artists chosen from over three hundred entries. Sarah Stolfa has been announced as one of the winners in the final exhibition in the thirty-first season of the three-part Wind Challenge Exhibitions at Fleisher — the Delaware Valley' premier juried artist exhibition program. This season's nine Challenge artists were selected from a field of 368 applicants to exhibit in one of three three-person exhibitions. The work will be shown from January 15th to March 6th of 2010 with an opening reception to take place January 15th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Arresting portraits of barflies revealing the urban bar experience from a rising star of photography.
“Photographs don’t say things; they just are. But Stolfa’s pictures—were they to speak to us in words—would, I believe, say yes.”
―RICHARD FORD
Dear Editor/Producer:
Where can we meet-up with friends when an apartment is too small? Disappear into a book when company is not desired? As paychecks dwindle and work hours elongate in this economy, there will always be a spot at the bar.
Author and photographer Sarah Stolfa captures striking photos of barflies in her first book THE REGULARS (July 2009; $22.95). Her spotlighted portraits take the reader back to the classic styles of Old World masters, reminding us of Caravaggio or Vermeer. The photos in this book are a striking visual counterpart to popular bar literature, inspiring renowned authors such as Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford and best selling author Jonathan Franzen.
In his introduction to the book, Franzen says: “There are no unsightly faces among Stolfa’s regulars. In fact, there are no faces in this book that aren’t extremely beautiful. Stolfa’s images have the quality, shared by the city in which they were taken, of rendering the very concept of unsightliness nonsensical.”
Stolfa won The New York Times Photography Contest for College Students in 2004 for her series “The Regulars” and several of her photographs later appeared in The New York Times Magazine. After ten years tending bar at McGlinchey’s in downtown Philadelphia, Stolfa claims: "I was a bartender before I was a photographer, and I got into photography to get out of the bar."
Stolfa’s numerous awards now include the Noah Addis Photojournalism award; a Perkins Center Photography Competition award; and an artist-in-residence at the Whitney Museum in New York. She is currently represented by Gallery 339 in Philadelphia and Silverstein Photography in New York City.
THE REGULARS is as elegant as an Old World master’s painting, but as down-home as a bottle of Bud. The stunning portraits in this book appeal to young hipsters, grizzled old-timers and every urban barfly in between. Please contact me if you would like to interview Stolfa, and also note that interior images are available upon request.
Cheers,
Quinn Rowan
Associate Publicist
Artisan Books
quinn@artisanbooks.com
(212) 614-7789
Sarah Stolfa
The Regulars Revisited
June 5 – August 29, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, June 5, 2009, 6:00-8:00 pm
In conjunction with the publication of The Regulars by Artisan Books, including an introduction by Jonathan Franzen.
From June 5th through August 29th, Gallery 339 is pleased to present a selection of work by artist Sarah Stolfa from her award-winning series, The Regulars. This exhibition is in conjunction with the summer 2009 release of The Regulars by Artisan Books. The Regulars features over 40 images from Stolfa’s series of portraits taken while working as a bartender at McGlinchey’s in Philadelphia. The 96-page book also includes an introduction by best-selling author Jonathan Franzen. The exhibition will present some familiar images as well as ones that have not previously been shown. In his introduction, Franzen says about Stolfa and The Regulars, “The magic of good portraiture, such as Stolfa’s, is to frame and de-reference human subjects in such a way as to evade our everyday judgments and restore the subjects to a natural world in which everything is interesting, everything incites sympathy and wonder, everything is worth a careful second look. She’s a classical short-storyist of the camera.”
Gallery 339
339 South 21st Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.731.1530
info@gallery339.com
HOURS:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
www.Gallery339.com