FOTOfusion 2011 and New Website Launch

FOTOfusion®2011 Palm Beach Photographic Center January 11-15, 2011 PHOTOGRAPH, "OCTOBER 24 1983 / 2:10 p.m.", 1983 In 2010, American Photo magazine featured Robert Glenn Ketchum in their Masters series making him only the fifth photographer they have recognized this way in 20-years of publishing. Of the five honored, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Annie Liebovitz, Ketchum is unique because his imagery is based almost exclusively in the natural world. For 45-years Ketchum's fine prints, and bookmaking, have addressed critical national environmental issues while at the same time helped to define contemporary color photography. His advocate use of photographs and the media has inspired successive generations of artists to work on behalf of social and environmental justice, and led to the creation of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), of which Ketchum is a Founding Fellow. It has also resulted in Audubon naming Ketchum one of the 100 people "who shaped the conservation movement of the 20th Century." Ketchum has been a longtime friend of The Palm Beach Photographic Centre, and so it is with great pleasure that the Centre will acknowledge this designation from American Photo magazine by hosting a retrospective exhibit of Ketchum's career, January 2-April 3, 2010. The exhibit is timed to open during , a weeklong celebration of photography that the Centre has been hosting for twenty years. EMBROIDERY, "YK DELTA FROM 1,500", 2003 While an undergraduate at UCLA in the mid-1960's Ketchum studied with Edmund Teske, Robert Heinecken and Robert Fichter, three very groundbreaking, non-traditional image-makers. Their influence clearly defines a whole other aspect to Ketchum's work far more experimental than those images he has produced on behalf of conservation. In the early '80's, Ketchum entered China through the UCLA-China Exchange Program, and began to collaborate with some of the historic embroidery guilds of Suzhou to develop complex textiles based on his photographs. Some of the most recent examples of this embroidery and loom weaving, many of which took years to complete, will be included in this exhibit, as will new designs from the digital darkroom that Ketchum has recently developed for the embroiderers. Ketchum's distinctive, dimensional prints are in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the National Museum of American Art (DC), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY). Significant archives (more than 100 images) have been acquired by the Amon Carter Museum (TX) and the Huntington Library and Gardens (CA), and substantial bodies of work can be found at the High Museum (GA), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Akron Art Museum (OH), Stanford University Art Museum (CA), the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University (NY), and the National Museum of American Art. PHOTOGRAPHIC PANELS, "CHOOSE JOY", 2007 It is seldom that The Centre has the opportunity to feature a photographer that embraces such a diverse approach to photographic image making. In appreciation of Ketchum's long friendship with PBPC and his well-earned reputation as an inspiring teacher, during FOTOfusion The Centre will present Ketchum with their annual Mentors Award. In turn, Ketchum will honor a relatively unknown photographer with the Rising Star Award. Ketchum has selected Miguel Ángel de la Cueva, a young Fellow from the International League of Conservation Photographers who is doing remarkable work in Mexico and Baja. Ketchum would also like iLCP photographers to become regular attendees and contributors to FOTOfusion, so he is introducing several iLCP Fellows at this year's festival and they will be lecturing, exhibiting, and signing recent books. Get out of the cold of winter. Come to FOTOfusion in West Palm Beach, take in a little sun... and some great photography!

One final bit of news is that my social media team and I have spent the past few months redesigning my website and today it's finally ready to be revealed! A couple of things I like most about my new site are that while it showcases my art nicely, it also coordinates my social media network, and even has video capability!  In addition, my new site now hosts an online store... just in time for the holidays. It would mean the world to me if you'd stop by the new site at some point and check it out:  www.robertglennketchum.com. Sincerely, Robert Glenn Ketchum