SPILL at G2 in Venice

A full exhibit of SPILL went up on the walls of the G2 Gallery in Venice, California and opened on March 5th. Daniel was especially thankful for the opportunity to raise visibility of the Gulf Oil Spill while the civil trial against BP is taking place almost three years after the spill began. Proceeds from the formal opening – which Daniel was able to attend – were donated to Greenpeace USA. SPILL at G2 ran until April 21st. The gallery show at G2 garnered the attention of NPR’s affiliate in Los Angeles, KCRW, which produced a really nice interview of Daniel.

Once the G2 Gallery show of SPill closed, some of the prints were moved to the Sturt Haaga Gallery in beautiful Descanso Gardens, just 20 minutes outside of L.A.  The exhibition will be on view from May 5th until July 28th.

Also, here is a cool video of the opening reception:

2011 Wildlife Photographer of the Year!

After last night’s awards ceremony, we’re extremely pleased and grateful to announce that Daniel has won the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for his above photo of pelicans covered in oil from the BP Gulf spill in 2010. The contest is sponsored by Veolia Environment, the British Natural History Museum, and the BBC Wildlife magazine.

As if this news wasn’t fantastic enough, we also get to share the news that Daniel was also the Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year, which is a great honor just by itself.

A giant thank you for all of the recognition from this award for Daniel’s work.

Preview video of Roca Gallery exhibit

Photographic Social Vision produced a preview video of Daniel’s SPILL exhibition that opens at Barcelona’s Roca Gallery next month. The text is in Spanish, but you’ll probably get the gist of the message.

Looking forward to the opening of the exhibit next month!

– JN

IPA given to Daniel for oil spill photos

Daniel’s photos from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continue to garner awards from contests. The International Photography Awards (IPA) have given Daniel’s Gulf spill photos a first place in their “Environmental” category and named his entry as a finalist for their “Deeper Perspective” award (for some reason their gallery pages don’t actually name the awards received, but rest assured, they’re listed on the overall winner page).

The IPA apparently likes to build a bit of suspense for their more prominent awards, so we won’t find out if Daniel has won the Deeper Perspective category until it is announced at the 9^th Annual Lucie Awards on October 24^th, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Our fingers are definitely crossed.

– JN

July/August American Photo cover

A photo of a boat in oil Daniel made last year graces the July/August issue of American Photo, on newsstands now. Inside, the magazine has a profile on Daniel and his work photographing the BP-Gulf oil spill on assignment for Greenpeace. The two-page spread on Daniel is included with profiles on four other photographers active in marine environment issue – Brian Skerry, John Weller, James Balog and Peter McBride – in a story headlined “Liquid Courage.”

Besides the honor of being included in the company of some conservation photography luminaries, it’s very nice for Daniel’s photos on the spill to continue to garner attention in the visual and graphic arts community.

-JN

Seatte Aquarium Sound Conversation May 5th

Daniel will present images from last year’s oil spill and talk about covering the man-made disaster at a “Sound Conversations” event hosted by the Seattle Aquarium Thursday, May 5th.  In addition to the Daniel’s photos, the evening will include a discussion with King5 News’s environmental reporter Gary Chittim about cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

May 5th just happens to be around the 1-year anniversary of when the earliest effects from the spill became apparent, so it will be interesting to hear and see what has been done since then and what remains. Tickets are $10. Hope to see you there!

– JN

New Yorker double page spread

We’re very happy to report that a photo Daniel shot for Greenpeace of a boat surrounded by oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico by BP’s Deepwater Horizon’s wellhead opens a piece by Raffi Khatchadourian’s in the March 14, 2011 edition of “The New Yorker.” The issue is available on newsstands in the next day or two and now online to subscribers.

-JN

Orion magazine cover

Daniel’s photo of oiled pelicans at the Bird Rescue Center in Louisiana, is featured on cover of the November/December edition of Orion magazine. It highlights some continued coverage of the spill, including a vivid and gripping essay of life around the spill by Terry Tempest Williams and a some great photos of the spill by J Henry Fair. Look it up online here.

– JN

212 Gallery exhibit coverage

Plenty of positive of coverage has come from the exhibit of oil spill photos at the 212 Gallery in Aspen. Plum TV produced a nice three-minute interview/slideshow of Daniel’s work in which Daniel discusses the techniques he used and challenges he faced in producing the photo coverage of the spill out of which the exhibit was made. Direct link: http://www.plumtv.com/videos/artist-daniel-beltra/index.html.

Additionally, both daily papers in Aspen covered the opening and exhibit.

Aspen Times: http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20100728/AE/100729830/1077&ParentProfile=1058.

Aspen Daily News: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/141687.

-JN

Oil spill gallery exhibit in Aspen

An exhibit of twenty oil spill photos by Daniel will publicly open at the 212 Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 and run for two months until September 25th. “SPILL: CRUDE RESPONSE,” is a shared exhibit with sculpture artist Aurora Robson and features 20 photographs that Daniel shot in the Gulf of Mexico during May and June. Also, during the opening reception on Tuesday night, multimedia performance artist Kenji Williams will make a live production of his “Bella Gaia” piece, which is quite impressive to watch on just on a 15″ laptop, so live and large should be exponentially more awesome.

For the photo-enthusiasts out there, Daniel’s photographs are C-prints from the esteemed Toronto Image Works (TIW), and are enlargements of 26.6″ x 40″ and 40″ x 60,” showing all the details of this ongoing environmental catastrophe. Daniel went to Toronto to supervise the fine-tune adjustments of the prints to ensure they were of the finest quality possible and was very impressed (and thankful) for the help that everyone at TIW gave him to get this exhibit produced so quickly. Going from a shoot to exhibit normally takes much, much longer and it’s doubtful it would have been possible without their involvement.

Daniel will be attending the opening, which just happens to be concurrent with the Aspen Institute’s Environment Forum, and hopefully we’ll have photos and more details of the exhibit next week.

If you’re in or near Aspen over the next couple of months, please stop by and take a look!

Thanks.

-JN