News

March 2010 Invisible City and A New History of Photography: The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads were both just placed into the collection of the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs at The New York Public Library.
Find Invisibe City in a library near you.
Find A New History in a libray near you.

June 2009 A New History of Photography was shortlisted for the 40th Annual Contemporary Author Book Award 2009 - LES RENCONTRES D'ARLES PHOTOGRAPHIE. A satellite showing of the book's images was projected in Arles during the festival along with other Schaden.com White Press projects in The Supermarkt space on Thursady July 9th at 9pm, Place de la Roquette, Arles, France. The two book prizes went to Susan Meiselas for In History, which documents the shattering impact of war on landscape as well as people, and to Swedish photographers Anders Pedersen and JH Engstrom for From Back Home, their collaborative study of their home country over two generations. Good as the study is, it seemed an odd choice considering the strong competition. I can't help feeling that, just as there is too much photography here, there are also too many photography books. From Sean O'Hagen, The Guardian (UK). Link to full review of the festival.

Some mentions on the web:
in May: On the French photography blog 12th Press, an essay by Nicholas Calcott on the relationship between photography and Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities.

The end of April: On Jeff Ladd's blog 5b4, in a thread responding to Jeff's 2nd anniversary posting on the inflated value of great photobooks, there is an entry (last one) where Gerry Badger weighs in and mentions my book Invisible City. I think the whole thread is pretty interesting. Read it from the start here or click here to just read Gerry's insightful entry (Invisible City is mentioned in the 1st paragraph).

April 18-19 2009 At The Pacific Street Photographic Workshops Jeff Ladd and I taught a weekend workshop on Making The Photographic Book. Response? "...both [are] incredibly passionate, well-informed teachers and your love for photography and books is very inspiring. I would recommend the class to anyone who wants to develop a deeper understanding of photography books and how to conceptualize them." — Amy S. "The sharing of ideas was generous and intelligent." — Laurie L. "Ken and Jeff were very attuned to the individual needs of the participants. ... Thanks so much for an inspiring and memorable course!" — Sebastian Z.

March 11 2009 at 7pm at the International Center of Photography as part of The Photographers: Lecture Series I will talk on my book A New History Of Photography (Note: this event is sold out).

January-March 2009: More Intensified: The Music Photography of Ken Schles, 1993-2006 a solo exhibition at The Noorderlicht Gallery in Groningen, Holland.

February 2009 Review: Photo-Eye by George Slade with a response by Ken Schles.

January 2009 A personal appearance at photo LA to sign books at the Shaden.com booth.

December 2008-January 2009 A New History is selected on best photography books of the year lists for 5b4, Photo-Eye, Schaden.com and Print Run.

September - December 2008 Multiple reviews and articles for A New History in FAZ, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 5b4, 1000 Words Photography. See reviews here.

September 2008: Official release of A New History during Photokina, in Cologne, Germany. Review in the September/October issue of Hotshoe International (London). Article entitled: Insight into the mind of a great photographer, by Bill Kouwenhoven, says the book displays "magic", "gutsiness", is "eloquent", the photographer shows "virtuosity"; "this book is a meditation on photography and the photographs that live in our heads", "uniquely personal", "it provides a particular insight into the mind of a great photographer", "gorgeously printed...and is an art object in its own right."

June/July 2008: "stealth" showing of A New History at the FOAM Photo Festival and Arles. Again, very positive public reaction.

May 2008: Debut of A New History at the Markus Schaden booth of the 1st New York Photo Festival, only a few test copies of the book available, but very good public reaction and strong pre-orders.

July 2006: Now represented by Josette Lata for advertising work.

June 2006: Moved office from Tribeca to Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Review: March 2006 Art in America. "...the photoportrayal of the city of Groningen in the uncompromising light of the area's northern sky. ...classic... The image fairly buzzes with intellectual activity, voices and ideas, residents old and young, a moment in real life permeated with the sweet reek of beer and cigarettes." —Edward Leffingwell (link to the full review)

NY Art Fairs 3/10-13/2006—at the New York Armory Show Schaden.com will show limited edition books by Ken Schles. At the Pulse Art Fair Lucas Schoormans will show photographs.

Exhibitions: Ken Schles photographs ran through December 17th, 2005 at the Lucas Schoormans Gallery in Chelsea. From The New Yorker: "[Schles] hasn’t lost his ability to get under the skin of urban life, and his new work, made in the course of a project in Holland, finds him on solid ground. His subjects are ordinary citizens seen in passing: waiting for a train, sitting on a bus, peering through a café window. Although occasional eye contact is made, nothing is revealed. So it’s hard to account for the vague but persistent sense of yearning, unless the muffled melancholia is the photographer’s own."

My project Homeland Security debuted as part of the Noorderlicht Festival entitled Traces and Omens and ran September 4th through October 9th, 2005. Also running concurrently was an exhibition of Promised Land, which will inaugurate Noorderlicht's new home and exhibition space in Groningen, The Netherlands. Click here for more details on the festival and see below for more information on Promised Land.
Marks of Honour: A Striking Library opened 5/10/2005 at the FOAM in Amsterdam and includes the work of 45 internationally acclaimed photographers. Marks of Honour

Recently published: Promised Land, a Noorderlicht Foundation book, with photographs by Anders Petersen, Antoine d'Agata, Ken Schles, John Davies and Adrienne van Eekelen on the city of Groningen (NL). Previewed it and order it here. An exhibition from work made for the book will run during the Noorderlicht Photo Festival held in Groningen, The Netherlands (see above).

For a glancing mention in good company, see Nov/Dec 2004 issue of Photograph by Vince Aletti: "Silvia Plachy's effortlessly engaging Self Portrait with Cows Going Home started me thinking about personal photo books. Of course, any book with idiosycratic vision and integrity—Robert Frank's The Americans, Richard Avedon's Observations, Ken Schles's Invisible City, or my favorite among the current releases, Lee Friedlander's magnificent Sticks and Stones: Architectural America—is in essence personal..."

Publication: a portfolio of Invisible City in issue number 5 of FOAM, a quarterly publication of the Photography Museum Amsterdam.

Ken Schles Winner 2003 IPA Photographer of the Year Award for Culture. For awards listings click here. For bio, click here.