The Museum of Modern Art in New York City announced today that Quentin Bajac is the museum’s new chief curator of photography. Bajac will assume the position in January 2013, replacing longtime curator Peter Galassi, who retired last year.

Bajac, who currently lives in Paris, is the chief curator of photography at the Centre Pompidou, where he’s worked for almost ten years. His past exhibitions at the museum include a retrospective of William Klein’s work; “Dreamlands,” which explored how World’s Fairs and theme parks have influenced architecture and design; and “The Subversion of Images: Surrealism, Photography, Film.” Bajac began his career as the curator of photography at the Musée d’Orsay.

In a statement released by MOMA, the museum’s director Glenn D. Lowry says:

“Quentin’s superb accomplishments in Paris over the past 17 years, at the Musée d’Orsay and the Centre Pompidou, have brought significant attention to the importance of photography in art history and as a critical component of contemporary practice.”

Bajac is also the chair in the history of photography at the Ecole du Louvre, and a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques and the Institut national du Patrimoine.

© Jennifer B. Hudson, the winner of the 2011 Critical Mass book award.

Registration opened today for the annual Critical Mass juried competition organized by Portland, Oregon photography non-profit Photolucida.

The competition boasts a group of 200-plus jurors from all corners of the photography industry, including curators, photo editors, publishers and gallerists from around the world. Winners receive a “book award,” which results in the publication of a monograph, and two entrants will receive solo shows at either Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, or the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado. The top 50 portfolios entered in the competition are featured on the Critical Mass site and in an exhibition that will be curated by W.M. Hunt.

For more info on fees, prizes and jurors, and to register visit the Photolucida site.

Burglars broke into the Cape Town, South Africa, apartment of award-winning photographer Zanele Muholi and stole more than 20 external hard drives and other computer equipment, according to a report in the Cape Times.

Muholi has documented the lives of black lesbians in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda, and has received awards and recognition in South Africa and abroad.

According to reports, hard drives and computers containing her archive of still photographs and video footage, representing more than five years’ worth of work, were the only things stolen from the apartment, fueling speculation that the theft was a targeted attempt to silence an artist who has been as controversial as she has been celebrated. Among the contents of the stolen hard drives were photographs of the funerals of lesbians killed in hate crimes.

The theft occurred on April 20 and the investigation is said to be ongoing.

Muholi did back up her work, but the back-up hard drives were kept in the same apartment and were also stolen, she told the Cape Times. The theft is a tragic reminder of the benefit of storing archives and backups in more than one location.

As we’ve reported in our coverage of photographer Patrick Cariou’s infringement claim against Richard Prince, Prince and his defenders argue that appropriation art does little harm to individuals from whom appropriation artists steal their raw materials. Their implied question: Where would civilization be without the great works of appropriation artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg?

Credit The Art Newspaper, a British publication, with taking on that argument. Yesterday they reported that Warhol, Rauschenberg and other big name appropriation artists quit stealing the work of others–and started getting licenses instead–after they got sued once or twice (or five times) for infringement.

“There is growing evidence—albeit rarely reported—that, although these artists may have started out as willing or unwitting outlaws, they decided that possibly infringing other artists’ copyright was legally unwise and potentially expensive, and they stopped,” writes Laura Gilbert for The Art Newspaper.

She reports that Andy Warhol faced lawsuits in the 1960s for unauthorized use of photographs by Patricia Caulfield, Fred Ward, and Charles Moore. He settled the claims out of court, and afterwards started asking for permission before incorporating works by others into his own creations. “He learned a lesson from the lawsuits,” Warhol’s gallerist, Ronald Feldman, told Gilbert.

Robert Rauschenberg was sued in the 1970s for unauthorized use of one of Morton Beebe’s photographs. After settling the suit in 1980, Rauschenberg reportedly quit appropriating the work of other artists. Jeff Koons, another appropriation artist who was famously sued (and lost) over the “String of Puppies” sculpture he copied without permission from a photograph, no longer uses the work of others without permission, his lawyer told The Art Newspaper.

Gilbert cites other examples, too. The message is that former art pirates with big names weren’t above the law, after all, and when they were sued into compliance, it wasn’t the end of appropriation art, much less civilization.

Richard Prince has already been held liable for infringement by a federal trial court judge. His appeal is pending. A victory for Prince, it seems, would put him in a special class of pirates with immunity, pretty much by himself.

Related:
Appropriation Artist Richard Prince Liable for Infringement, Court Rules
In Cariou v. Prince, an Appeal to Clarify a Crucial Fair Use Boundary

"Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986," © Jeff Wall.

A 1992 photograph by Jeff Wall sold for $3,666,500 yesterday evening during a Post-War and Contemporary art auction at Christie’s in New York City. The previous record sale for a work by Jeff Wall was $1.1 million.

The work “Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986″ depicts a grisly scene in which Soviet Red Army soldiers killed by the Afghan mujahideen have come back to life and are conversing with one another.

The photograph, framed in a light box, was the first in an edition of two, with one artist’s print. The photograph has been in the collection of David and Geraldine Pincus, who acquired it from Marian Goodman Gallery in New York. The Pincus’s substantial collection formed a major part of the sale, which set a record for a Post-War and Contemporary art sale at $388.5 million, according to Christie’s.

The high lot in the sale was Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow,” which sold for $86.9 million, another record for a work from the Post-War period.

Three other photographs were included in the sale. A Richard Prince work that appropriated a Marlboro advertisement, “Untitled (Cowboys),” sold for $602,500. Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled #122″ sold for $206,500. And Nan Goldin’s “Ballad Triptych” sold for $218,500.

Related: Eggleston’s First-Ever Large Pigment Prints Earn 5.9 Million at Auction

Pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. © Jeff Scott

Fine-art photographer Jeff Scott won the 2012 James Beard Foundation Award in the Photography category for Notes From a Kitchen: A Journey Inside Culinary Obsession. The award for the self-published, two-volume book, which is a collaboration between Scott and chef Blake Beshore, was announced on Friday, May 4, 2012, in New York City.

The book doesn’t contain any recipes, but instead aims to reveal the creative process for some of the top, young chefs in America. Shot documentary-style, Scott’s photos show the chefs at work and away from the kitchen as well as their personal notebooks where menus are planned and recipes created.

Some of the notebooks included in the book. © Jeff Scott

Other finalists for the prize were food, still-life and lifestyle photographer Joseph De Leo, who was nominated for The Cheesemonger’s Kitchen, and food and travel photographer Alan Benson, who worked on Rustica: A Return to Spanish Home Cooking. Last year, Danish photographer Ditte Isager won the photography award for her work on the cookbook Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine.

The James Beard Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers “events and programs designed to educate, inspire, entertain and foster a deeper understanding of our culinary culture.” Each year the foundation recognizes people in every aspect of the food and beverage industry—from chefs and restaurateurs to cookbook authors and food writers—who have excelled in their fields. Editorial and commercial photographer Landon Nordeman received the 2012 James Beard Foundation Award in the new category of Visual Storytelling for his Saveur assignments “The Soul of Sicily,” “BBQ Nation” and “Heart of the Valley.” Also of note: Gastronomica was awarded Publication of the Year alongside the Web site Food52.

Notes From a Kitchen: A Journey Inside Culinary Obsession. © Jeff Scott

To see the complete list of 2012 James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast and Journalism Award winners, go to jamesbeard.org.

Related Article:

Cookbooks Come Out of the Kitchen

The International Center of Photography (ICP) board of trustees today named Mark Robbins, dean of the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, as the new executive director of ICP. Robbins will succeed Willis E. “Buzz” Hartshorn, who announced last year he would be leaving his role for medical reasons.

Before joining Syracuse, Robbins served as director of design for the National Endowment for the Arts and as a curator of architecture at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. In a statement,  Jeffrey Rosen, president of the ICP board of trustees, said the board was impressed with his “vision of the transformational power of images” and noted that in his previous positions, Robbins “made a significant impact as a leader and a manager, and as an artist and an educator.”

To see the full news story, visit PDNOnline.com.

Related story
ICP Director Willis Hartshorn to Step Down

The 28th Annual International Center of Photography Infinity Awards, held May 2 in New York City, paid tribute to its departing director, ICP director Willis E. “Buzz” Hartshorn, who last year announced he wanted to step down for medical reasons. Though Hartshorn will continue to work with ICP, this was his last Infinity Awards as director, a role he has held since 1994, when he took over from ICP founder Cornell Capa.

The crowd gave a standing ovation to Hartshorn, who oversaw the expansion of both the ICP museum’s exhibition space and its photography school and the creation of the ICP Triennial exhibition. In accepting a special Infinity Award last night, Hartshorn said that in the 30 years he’s been associated with ICP, its mission has evolved from promoting the appreciation of photography to exploring “how pictures create meaning.” He thanked the ICP board for creating a new advisory position for him within the institution. He also expressed gratitude to ICP founder Cornell Capa for his leadership and encouragement. Looking first toward the heavens and then, after a pause, downwards, Hartshorn said, “Cornell, thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

Photographer Daido Moriyama won the Lifetime Achievement Award. A video that preceded the presentation showed Moriyama capturing his black-and-white, expressionistic images, shooting on the streets of Tokyo with a small pocket camera, sometimes from the hip or without looking through the viewfinder. Moriyama took his iconic photo “Stray Dog” while in his 20s, but for a time he abandoned photography, frustrated that his work was only copying. After falling into a period of drug use, he by chance found and bought a used Pentax and then returned to making art. (more…)

There are several deadlines on the horizon for notable grants and contests. They include big-money prizes that support personal and documentary work or emerging photographers, plus some worthy photo contests, open to photographers in all genres, organized by old friends of PDN.

Moving Walls 20: deadline April 30
Open Society Foundations are now accepting photographers’ proposals for Moving Walls, the group photography exhibition featuring “in-depth and nuanced explorations of human rights and social issues,” especially those issues on which the Open Society is currently working. The Moving Walls photographers receive a $2500 honorarium, and the exhibition will be displayed at the Open Society Foundations’ offices in New York and Washington, DC in early 2013.
www.soros.org/initiatives/photography/focus_areas/mw/guidelines

W. Eugene Smith Grant:  deadline May 31
The W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography supports a photographer whose past work and proposed project, as judged by a panel of experts chaired by PDN‘s Lauren Wendle, follows the tradition of W. Eugene Smith’s concerned photography and dedicated compassion. The grant in 2012 will be $30,000.
http://smithfund.org/

ASMP New York Image 12: deadline May 1
The New York chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers is sponsoring the Image 12 contest, open to both professionals and student photographers. The winners will be featured in an exhibition in New York, and two first place student winners and one first place pro winner will also be featured in an ad in Photo District News. Five judges, including  PDN’s editor, will select the winners.
www.asmp.org/image11/rules.php

OjodePez/Photo Espana Award for Human Values: deadline May 10
OjodePez, the documentary photography magazine, is offering a 3,000 euro prize for photographers doing documentary work “in which human values such as solidarity, ethics, dedication or justice stand out.” In addition to prize money, the winning work, selected by an international panel of judges (including photo editors at Le Monde, The Guardian Weekend magazine and the Israel Museum of Jerusalem) will be featured in the September issue of OjodePez and may be featured in an exhibition.
www.ojodepez.org/premio

Burn Magazine Emerging Photographer Grant: deadline May 15
The Emerging Photographer Grant supports the continuation of a photographer’s ongoing personal project, whether it’s artistic or journalistic. A jury of photographers has not yet been chosen to select the winners and runners up, but past judges have included Gilles Peress, Eugene Richards, Susan Meiselas, Maggie Steber and James Nachtwey. Past winners have received $15,000 in grant money, supported by the Magnum Foundation.
www.burnmagazine.org/emerging-photographer-grant/

Photo Center NW Photo Competition Exhibition: deadline May 18
The non-profit Photo Center NW is now seeking entries for its 17th annual Photo Competition Exhibition, to be judged by collector and author W.M. Hunt. The first, second and third prize winners of the juried exhibition receive $1,000, $500 and $250.
pcnw.org

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for International Photography 2012 Grant: deadline May 31
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation is seeking global and social documentary reportage. Now in its second year, the $5,000 grant supports work covering covering issues such as health, poverty, oppression, war, famine, migration and immigration. For information, click on the “Grant 2012″ tab on http://mrofoundation.org/

City of Levallois Photography Award: deadline May 18
The winner of the City of Levallois Photography Award receives a 10,000 euro grant and an exhibition at the Photo Levallois festival, which takes place in October and November in France. Note: The prize is only open to artists under the age of 35.
www.photo-levallois.org/en/

Santa Fe Workshop Contest: late deadline April 30
The semi-annual Santa Fe Photography Contest honors photographers in all genres, and offers more than $15,000 worth of prizes including tuition for Santa Fe Workshops, gear and cameras. The jurors include PDN‘s photo editor. The early deadline has past, but the final submission deadline is April 30.
www.santafeworkshops.com/contest/

Related Articles:

Call for Entries: LUCEO Student Award

Inaugural Photoville Event in Brooklyn to Feature 35 Exhibitions, Unique Photo Installation (and a dog run)

Photographer Ian Ruhter has been creating one-of-a-kind landscapes using the vintage wet-plate collodion process, developed in the 19th century. He drives a mobile darkroom, fitted into a van, into beautiful locations and uses enormous metal plates to record the scene…or at least he tries. This video captures not only the technique he uses, but his frequent frustration with the temperamental process.

On the closing night of the Palm Springs Photo Festival, organizer Jeff Dunas screened Ruhter’s video, “Silver & Light,” noting that he couldn’t resist its depiction of one photographer’s obsession and passion for photography.

You can see more videos about Ruhter’s wet-plate on his Vimeo page.