Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight was a photographer who was active in the East Village art scene in the 1980s. Today's Out Spotlight is Tseng Kwong Chi.

Tseng Kwong Chi (family name of Tseng listed first in traditional Chinese style. He usually went by "Joseph Tseng" prior to his photography career), was born in Hong Kong in 1950.

Although born in Hong Kong, and educated in Hong Kong, at approximately age of sixteen Tseng's parents moved the family to Canada. There, Tseng originally studied painting at Academie Julien, but switched to photography after one year. He went on to study in Vancouver, Montreal and Paris. In 1978, he moved to New York City.

Tseng became internationally known for his photographic series Expeditionary Self-Portrait Series a.k.a. East Meets West. In over 100 images, he posed in front of iconic architecture and sublime nature as his invented artistic persona, a Chinese “Ambiguous Ambassador” in the classic Mao suit, he found in a thrift store.

 Tseng dressed in what he called his "Mao suit" and sunglasses (dubbed a "wickedly surrealistic persona" by the New York Times), and photographed himself situated, often emotionlessly, in front of iconic tourist sites. These included the Statue of Liberty, Cape Canaveral, Disney Land, Notre Dame de Paris, and the World Trade Center.

“A cross between Ansel Adams and Cindy Sherman,” the work explores tourist photography in a playful juxtaposition of truth, fiction, and identity.

According to his sister, he drew artistic influence from Brassai and Cartier-Bresson.

He became an important documentarian and denizen of the downtown 1980’s New York club and art scene. During his brief but prolific 10-year career, he created over 100,000 vibrant color and black-and-white photographs of his contemporaries Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, McDermott and McGough, Kenny Scharf, Philip Taaffe, Madonna, Grace Jones, the B-52’s, and Fab Five Freddy, among others, a rich historical archive of the decade.

Tseng took tens of thousands of photographs of New York graffiti artist Keith Haring throughout the 1980s working on murals, installations and the subway. In 1984, his photographs were shown with Haring's work at the opening of the Semaphore Gallery's East Village location in a show titled "Art in Transit".

He also photographed the first Concorde landing at Kennedy International Airport, from the tarmac.

In 1990, Tseng died at age 39 from complications related to the AIDS virus, was survived by his companion of seven years Robert-Kristoffer Haynes, who remains a resident of New York City and serves as Registrar at Paula Cooper Gallery. He left an enduring body of work that engages major photographic traditions -- the tourist snapshot, portraiture, landscape photography, documentary and performance.

Tseng’s photographs have been exhibited widely in international exhibitions and are in numerous major public museums and private collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His work has been included in the Asian American Arts Centre's digital archive.

All Taped Up

Some more interviews of Jake discussing Lou Bloom and Nightcrawler.

First is an interview with the CBC Radio show “Q with Jian Ghomeshi .  In the interview talks about " on privacy and voyeurism; shares how he got into the head of his sociopathic character; and why he's drawn to challenging and often darker roles." Jake also talks about why he decided to become a producer on the movie.



Jake sat down with IndieWire for a discussion of the movie and his character which resulted in several video clips.

This first clip shows off Jake's great memory as he reenacts the entire opening scene of Nightcrawler.

Back to Glory

Southpaw is Jake's first sports themed movie, but it's not the first sports movie for  OMG.

Austin's Glory Road wins that title.

While Glory Road pops up on TV on the occasional weekend, it's been a while for OMG to take a look back.

Glory Road is the story of based on a true story surrounding the events leading to the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Don Haskins, head coach of Texas Western College, coached a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history.

Austin played Jerry Armstrong

Armstrong graduated Texas Western and "returned with his wife, Mary, to Missouri where he became assistant coach at Trenton [MO]. He later coached teams at King City, Richmond and Mansfield, winning more than 300 games in a 21-year career. He left coaching to become Mansfield’s principal, retiring after 30 years in education."

The lone goodbye

Austin posted this today on his twitter

Saying goodbye - AUS10

It was a poignant tweet on a poignant day, but what does it all mean?

Who is he saying good bye to? 


And why did he choose to share it?

And why today?


We remember those who lost their lives this day, thirteen days ago, those innocent victims, those first responders who gave their lives to help other, and all the heroes who emerged out of tragedy.  And we honor those survivors, responders, and citizens who are forever are changed from this day.  We will never forget what happened while we look ahead into the future.

Coop'd up

Jake has spoken about his former co-star Chris Cooper before and the advice he gave him when Jake was just starting out as in actor,

Chris Cooper once told me to never have any regrets. After Chris said that to me, I walk into every scene thinking, 'exhaust every possibility.' Once you get to a certain place, it's like you just deliver everything you've got. Don't have any regrets. It pops up in my mind over and over and over again.

Even this year at TIFF Jake mentioned the advice the man who once played his father gave him.

Most thought Jake was just reminiscing but actually it might have been a little hint about his new movie.

Deadline has exclusively confirmed that Chris Cooper has now joined the cast of Demolition. No word on who Cooper's character is or his relationship to Jake's character. The Jean-Marc Vallee movie begins film in New York next week.

Demolition will be the third time Jake and Chris have worked together.  Most remember Cooper as Jake's dad in October Sky,  while some may have forgotten that Cooper played Lt. Col. Kazinski in Jarhead. 

Will "Jake" tweet about his new co-star?  Well someone might, but not Jake.  Here's Jake at TIFF talking to Vanity Fair about how he doesn't have a clue who is tweeting as him.

Drives and Dubs

The Texas Tweeter tweeting about driving and dubs  or is that drives and dubbing?


Want me to drive? - AUS10

Funny that doesn't look like your Leaf.

Or dubs either.

Ray Donovan. The art of voice dubbing.- AUS10

Bit more TIFF

A few more moments from Jake at TIFF

I think you should move you hand Rene, the movie's over.

 If this kid says kale one more time, I swear.

 I thought they meant Canadian Tuxedo on the invitation.

 I heard from Denis that if you tickle his chin, he grins.

It's settled.  We'll shop, they'll surf.

Smile!

Don't think Jake out of Canada without some interviews.  

Here are just a couple of the many.

IndieWire's  interview

And an interview with K92.5   who's reporter ask if he can sit in Jake's lap, and also teaches him how to say the word NEWS.

Nightcrawler is getting a great response from the audience and critics alike.