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illy issimo and the School of Visual Arts

Jessica Miller wins 2011 AuthentiCity photography contest

Newly-created work by 3 finalists will be on exhibit in New York from July 8 - 27, 2011

MILAN and NEW YORK – July 7, 2011: illy issimo – the ready-to-drink coffee-based beverage developed from a joint venture by illycaffè and The Coca-Cola Company (ILKO Coffee International) – announced the winner of the second edition of “AuthentiCity.” Created in cooperation with the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, AuthentiCity is a photography project aimed at supporting emerging talent.

“Facade” is the title of Jessica’s work, which uses faceless human bodies as an extension of urban structures. The work focuses on the fluidity of the body interacting with the rigidity of the city’s infrastructure, fusing the two to create temporary pieces of public art. Jessica’s work was considered by the jury particularly interesting and compelling in its unconventional use of human body in the urban space. Her response to the contest’s theme offers a unique and poetic on urban life and the ways in which we inhabit the city.

The jury panel – including representatives of ILKO Coffee International, illycaffè, SVA and Elisabeth Biondi, former visuals editor of The New Yorker – previously selected three finalists from over 200 applicants, all of whom were educated at SVA and were charged with “discovering new lifestyles in the urban context.” The three finalists – Phil Kline, Jessica Miller and David Rapoport – were commissioned to create a new body of work for the exhibition on view in New York from July 8 to 27 at the SVA Gallery, 209 East 23 Street (Monday – Friday, 9am – 7pm, Saturday 10am – 6pm). Each finalist received a cash prize of $3000 while the winning photographer received an additional cash prize of $10,000.

The contest’s theme – discovering new urban lifestyles – serves as an inspiration to use photography as a means of discovering new lifestyles, social dynamics and ways of interacting with the city.

The inaugural AuthentiCity contest was launched in 2010, with the goal of investigating the city, the ideal reference point for illy issimo, and “revealing purity and authenticity in urban life.” The winner of the 2010 competition was SVA alumnus Igor Aronov (1997 BFA Photography) for his photo series “Reflection of the City”.

For more information about the AuthentiCity project, the complete photo-stream and to watch video interviews with the three finalists:

Discover her works on Flickr:

WORK STATEMENT

FACADE

Jessica Miller was born in Bangor, Maine in 1977. She began making photographs at a young age, and has always been fascinated with narrative images. She earned a BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as a BA in Psychology from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. Jessica’s work will be featured in the PDN Annual as well as in the Guggenheim Museum’s Stillspotting project. Her work is also housed in the permanent collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is currently enrolled in the MFA program for Photography, Video and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

WORK STATEMENT My background in psychology heavily informs my photographic work. I work with portraiture and always find that making a portrait with someone is a psychologically intricate experience. I photograph family, friends, strangers, and sometimes strangers who become friends through this collaborative process. The nuances of gesture, the insecurity that appears when the lens focuses, and the conversations that ensue are always unique in every shoot. Human interaction is a fluid process and one that is endlessly intriguing. Having the opportunity to make a portrait of someone, to have that sitter share their time and their likeness with me, is a privilege. It can be uncomfortable, tense, hilarious or exciting. Whatever the mood is, it is always a surprise. And it in this lack of predictability that I make my best images

FACADE
In the series Facade, I explore using faceless human bodies as an extension of city structures. I have created photographs of people without their likeness being the focal point, allowing their gestures to serve the same function that facial expressions do in portraiture. My intention was to focus on the fluidity of the body interacting with the rigidity of the infrastructure of the city, fusing the two to create temporary pieces of public art.

Discover his works on Flickr:

ALONE

NEW NEW YORK

Phil Kline was born in Kansas City in 1978. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2002 with a BA in Film and Video, and worked in the film industry in NYC before returning to school to concentrate on still photography. In 2008 he received an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. His personal work is motivated by a persistent desire to better understand what it means to be human, especially the various ways that we live in, and adapt to, urban environments. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, Phil also works as an editorial photographer specializing in dining and portraits. He lives and works in Brooklyn.

ALONE
Alone is a meditation on solitude. In my own state of melancholy, I wandered the streets of New York City, sometimes trying to find a connection with something unknown, sometimes just trying to get away from myself. When I saw something in the outside world that spoke to me, I framed and captured it. I’m interested in the isolation inherent to the human condition, how the loneliness of being an individual manifests in everyone, and in the strategies people adopt to defend against it. In these photos, I have tried to present a range of emotions that derive from the state of being alone. While isolation can be painful, it is also a necessary corollary to self-awareness: alone, we can sense the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are aware of our own mortality.

NEW NEW YORK
Interpreting New York's authenticity is a challenge. New buildings reshape the city's ever- changing facade, creating an eerie landscape that juxtaposes the old and the new, the established and the intruder. This dynamic tension is reflected in lifestyles as well. New Yorkers express a connection to their environment through appearance, and appearance in many ways communicates and identifies one's lifestyle (or the lifestyle one desires) to others. I'm interested in how New Yorkers forge a sense of self by speaking in cultural symbols that construct a personal identity. These photographs are a record of a few New Yorkers that I’ve come across in my own day-to-day life.

Discover his works on Flickr:

I GOT LOST IN TIMES SQUARE

PLACES: NYC, USA

David Rapoport is an emerging, self-promoting photographer video artist, who has been creating photo-documentary, digital art, and portraits on his own, since 1978. Mr. Rapoport believes in making art for the ‘love of art.’ To him, the process is far better than the successes, and the recognition is secondary. The satisfaction to make and show art the art takes precedence over commercial success. David graduated from the School of Visual Arts (2009), in the Masters of Fine Arts Program for Photography, Video and Related Media. He is also a graduated from NYU with a BFA in Film and Television Production (1982). David has been using computers for photography, video, and art for over 18 years.

I GOT LOST IN TIMES SQUARE
I like to be out in the streets of New York City, where the people are. I like to take pictures in the streets, bring them home, and then create my own ‘vision’ of what I see.
This series of images take place in Times Square. This place is so awesome. I guess the best word to describe it is ‘Extravaganza.’
These images are about my experience with the camera. I am on the go, (with my Illy Coffee) inside the movement of life in New York City, and all of the action that takes place here, to ‘capture’ it forever.
Inspiration for this series comes from earlier works that I created. One of them is a film entitled, “What I Am.” It is a digital Standard-8 capture. There is a sequence of double exposures in it.
I am also influenced by the work of Charles Traub, Silvio Wolf, Peter Homitzky, and other teachers.
Canon’s DSLR technology allows a photographer to shoot still works as moving pictures at high resolution for stills.
I shot these work, originally as a video. They were created in Apple’s Final Cut Pro.
I shoot at 24 frames per second. Hypothetically, if there are 24 frames in each second of video, and 60 seconds per minute, a 10-minute video will have approximately 14400 still frames to choose from. Then the effects are added.
I discovered this process by accident, and I was able to use it in the right ways to make it work. Sometimes, mistakes can be the best presentation.

PLACES: NYC, USA
While shooting with my Canon DSLR, I discovered its amazing video capability. Hypothetically, if I shoot at 24 frames per second, that means that I can have thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of frames as material for still images from just a few minutes of video, after the visual effects are in place. This body of work is about the places that I visit in NYC, with my camera for photo opportunities.