Paul Berger: MULTIPLEX

10 x 11 inches horizontal; 128 pages; hardcover with jacket. $50.00 plus shipping Author interview with Jon Feinstein; essay by Rod Slemmons ISBN: 978-0-9906036-89 MULTIPLEX is the first hardcover monograph by Paul Berger. In his 35 years at the University of Washington, Berger guided the path of many aspiring artists, while simultaneously continuing his own investigations into the adaptation and usage of the photographic medium.  A survey of his career, the book aims to illuminate Berger’s forward-thinking exploration of how images are used to communicate across a spectrum of channels, and is organized around key ideas that permeate throughout his series of works: “Site of Notation,” “Mechanics of Narrative,” “Arenas of Evidence,” and “Automaton.” Each section begins with a text by, or chosen by, Berger; additional excerpts of his writing add detail and insight to highlighted bodies of work. An essay by esteemed photography curator and museum director Rod Slemmons will provide an overview to the significance of Berger’s structured sequences, and his early transition to digital manipulation of electronic imagery. Jon Feinstein of Humble Arts Foundation discusses the increasing relevance of Berger's work in the 21st century through an interview with the author.   Paul Berger has been working in the photographic medium since 1965. He completed his BA through UCLA in 1970, studying with Robert Heinecken and Robert Fichter, and worked with Nathan Lyons at Visual Studies Workshop while completing his MFA there in 1973. He taught at the University of Washington's School of Art for 35 years, having co-founded the Photography program in 1978 and initiated a sequence of digital imaging classes in 1985.  He has exhibited photographic and digital artworks both nationally and in Europe, including major exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, and Cologne. He was the subject of a 2003 retrospective exhibition, "Paul Berger: 1973-2003," at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, which was reviewed in Artforum, and has had work published in numerous books, including Seizing the Light: A History of Photography; Robert Hirsh, 2000; and The Digital Eye: Photographic Art in the Electronic Age; Sylvia Wolf, 2010. A catalog for his Seattle Art Museum exhibition The Machine in the Window was published in 1990, and Seattle Subtext, a monograph, was published in 1984 by VSW Press/Real Comet Press.   Berger’s work is represented in prestigious permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Bibliothequé Nationale, Paris; the International Center for Photography, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Seattle Art Museum; and many others.  Rod Slemmons  taught photography and the history of photography for 12 years at the University of Washington. He was National Chair of the Society for Photographic Education  (SPE) from 1990 to 1994, and named Honored Educator at the SPE National Conference in 2007. He was the Curator of Prints and Photographs at the Seattle Art Museum for 14 years, producing 35 exhibitions and numerous catalogs, including Like A One-Eyed Cat, the first retrospective of Lee Friedlander in 1989. Slemmons served as Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago from 2002–2011, where he also taught undergraduate photo history and graduate seminars in the Photography Department. Slemmons trained at George Eastman House, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, from 1976–78. He also holds an MA in contemporary literature. Jon Feinstein is a curator, photographer, and co-founder of Humble Arts Foundation. Jon has curated numerous exhibitions over the past decade, including Future Isms at Glassbox Gallery in Seattle, WA; Radical Color at Newspace Center for Photography, in Portland, OR; Another New York for Art-Bridge at The Barclays Arena in Brooklyn, NY; and 31 Women in Art Photography at Hasted Kraetleur in NYC.  His various projects have been featured in Aperture, The New York Times, PDN, The New Republic, BBC, VICE, The New Yorker, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Feature Shoot, American Photo, Art Info, and FoxNews; and his writing has appeared in TIME, Slate, Daylight, GOOD, and Whitewall magazines. His internet-acclaimed group show, originally titled "New Cats in Art Photography" is being published as a hard-bound book, Humble Cats, by Yoffy Press. Feinstein is a graduate of Bard College, and splits his time between Seattle and New York City.