“He’s inspired by Edward Hopper and even Mark Rothko – there’s a sense of otherness from Rothko that he captures in his work,” says Mark Scala, who’s curating Spencer’s first solo exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.  “And there’s an influence by Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner.”

Spencer is a native of Mississippi.  His work gives off a sense of a deep, rich atmosphere – a dreamlike vision of something suspended in time and lingering beneath the surface.

Thus the show’s title: “Beneath the Surface.”

His early black & white work from the 1990s is darkroom photography that’s tinted or toned, its negatives distressed to appear older than they are. It’s about people and landscapes in the South, on the fringes of economic stability.

“They’re poor people we might drive past a hundred times without paying attention,” he says.  “”It’s about looking where others don’t, and seeing the beauty, dignity and power of his subjects.”

Scala has selected 70 of Spencer’s photographs, including his color work of the past 10 years.  It’s more about landscapes barely populated by people, and likely to include animals, forsaken buildings or structures.

“There’s the open emptiness of Edward Hopper,” he says of the self-taught photographer who began his career as a painter.

But the reality is that his work is reminiscent of two 20^th-century photographers: Edward Steichen and Robert Frank.

“Early on, he was inspired by Steichen to hone his craft as a pictorialist, with a soft-focus blur into the background,” he says. “And then there’s Frank’s “The Americans,” and its gritty images across the country, along the highway and on the road.”

But mostly, Spencer’s photography is about the mystery of the medium, and straddling the border between the real and the imaginary.

The exhibition opens on July 12.

For more information, go to http://fristcenter.org/calendar-exhibitions/detail/jack-spencer

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It’s a vivid contradiction to many of the images widely broadcast and published during the past decade.

That’s because Kamber, a veteran of 25-years in wartime photojournalism, hunkered down with 39 of his colleagues to select images of key moments in the war, some that have never been published.

The result is 300 pages of rarely seen history.

“Most American news organizations closed their bureaus and pulled staff after 2004,” he says.  “It got too dangerous and expensive because of Abu Ghraib and Fallujah.  Things got nasty very quickly – it was dangerous on the streets.”

Indeed.  Western journalists were seen as agents of George W. Bush.  Insurgents began to hunt and kill Iraqi, Japanese and Russian photojournalists.  “They had no compunction about tracking them down and shooting them in the head,” he says.

There were issues with what he calls censorship as well – with military brass and editors in the states too.  “I think the government and the military had restrictions in place to get the photos they wanted, and editors were loathe to publish photos that would alienate readers,” he says.

So in 2008, he began to talk to his colleagues in Baghdad about publishing a book that would provide a behind-the-scenes view of the war.  They wanted to create and set forth an accurate history of the war as they saw it – and what it really looked like.

They would sift through 4,000 images and distill them down to 166, and take 35,000-word interviews down to 2,500.  The emphasis was on creating a history that the American people have not yet seen.

“There’s the toll on the Iraqi citizens of a war fought on their backs,” he says.  “And some American casualties not published widely or at all.  Any images we thought had been censored, we made sure they got published.”

He’s got three target audiences in mind: Middle America, historians, and the families of the soldiers who’ve fought for this nation.

“I’d like for people who want to know what really happened in Iraq.  This is one of the books they should go to,” he says.

With photographs as compelling as these, that’s a strong likelihood.

It’ll be out next week from the University of Texas Press.

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The following images/text are excerpted from Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq by Michael Kamber with an Introduction by Dexter Filkins. The book is being published on May 15, 2013 by University of Texas Press.

For more information, go to http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/kampho.html (Publisher website) or http://www.kamberphoto.com (Author website)

PRESS IMAGES PHOTO CAPTIONS

Tikrit April 15, 2003 US Marines take a break to shave in front of one of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces the day Tikrit fell from Republican Guard rule. As the regime of Saddam Hussein fell across Iraq, soldiers and civilians pillaged his palaces across the country, revealing luxurious accommodations and major weapons caches. Photo by Lynsey Addario

Tal Afar June 2005 Suspected insurgents are detained inside a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to be transported to a detention facility during an early morning raid. Soldiers from the 3^rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi soldiers moved into Tal Afar with Bradleys, tanks, and Humvees. Helicopters provided air support as the soldiers searched houses and detained suspects. © Christoph Bangert

Ubaydi December 29, 2007 Capt. George Morris, commander of B Company, 2-502 Infantry, and his soldiers hit the ground running in the opening salvo of Operation “Patriot Strike.” The soldiers detained ten suspected al-Qaeda conspirators and seized weapons and bomb-making supplies. Photo by Ben Brody

Basra April 7, 2003 A British soldier watches black smoke rising from the southern port city of Basra. The burning building on the right, a technical college, was repeatedly shelled by British forces in response to Iraqi sniper attacks. Photo by Alan Chin

Al Musayyib May 27, 2003 An Iraqi child jumps over the remains of victims found in a mass grave south of Baghdad.  The bodies had been brought to this school for identification by family members who searched for identity cards and other clues among the skeletons to identify missing family members.  The victims were killed by Saddam Hussein’s government during a Shi’ite uprising here following the 1991 Gulf War.  © Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

Kirkuk April 2004, Roadside explosion. Stanley Greene/Noor

Tal Afar January 18, 2005 Samar Hassan, five, screams moments after her parents were killed by US soldiers from the 25^th Infantry Division. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached during a dusk patrol in the tense northern town. Her brother, Racan, eleven, was wounded in the shooting. Later, after being treated in the US and returning to Iraq, Racan was killed when insurgents bombed the family home in retaliation for the boy’s trip to the US. Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Qubah March 24, 2007 A US soldier marks the hands of women and the backs of the necks of men with numbers for their specific neighborhoods and homes. Lt Col. Andrew Poppas of the 73^rd Calvary, 82^nd Airborne Division, said the numbering system allowed troops to determine if people were moving around the village of Qubah despite a lockdown following a US attack on insurgents. Yuri Kozyrev/NOOR

Sadr City February 2009 Rena was nine months pregnant, walking with her youngest sister in Sadr City one day in 2008. A US airstrike tore her leg off, killing her unborn infant and her sister. Photo by Farah Nosh

Baghdad February 12, 2003  Six weeks before the start of the war, a man sits drinking tea at the Al Zahawi cafe on Rashid Street.  Cafes are a trademark of this ancient city, gathering places where men play dominos, blackjack and socialize. Photo boy Bruno Stevens

Rawah March 2006 A weary American soldier stands guard as a residentialhome is searched. Photo by Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos

She’s been leading New York’s design coverage since 1997, and now edits the twice-annual, stand-alone Design Hunting too.

The new summer issue is on the stands now, jam-packed with a full spectrum of aspirational types of living in New York – mostly in recycled spaces like apartments, lofts and carriage houses.

“It’s about the way people live in this city,” she says.  “They’re challenged by space and budget.”

Design Hunting covers nine projects with a fine toothed comb, intent on giving readers both a dreambook and a resource guide to help them achieve their own goals.

“If you’re thinking about design, you’ll have a place to go for an architect, an interior designer, a painter or an electrician,” she says.  “And it’s got all the stores – the big boxes for anything related to design, and the smaller shops for hardware.”

Four months in the making for Goodman and a staff of 15, Design Hunting is a labor of love and persistence.  Goodman says she’s taken a “trillion” subway rides on a 24/7 scavenger hunt.  If someone at a dinner party makes mention of something that interests her, she’ll be on it the next day.

“You have to open the door for yourself and go way outside what you think you know,” she says.  “You can’t call it in, and you have to constantly challenge yourself.”

Each project in the magazine is a story unto itself, including a Greenwich Village one-bedroom garden apartment that’s been re-created as a Scottish cottage.  “It’s a close shave between this and an old-lady’s apartment,” the owner, Grammy-nominated singer Angela McCluskey, says in the feature.  Decorated on a non-existent budget, it’s been transformed into a handpainted replica of an Glasgow wonderland.

It is, as the magazine itself says, “gawk-worthy,” for both the profession and the curious in Manhattan.

“It’s for readers engaged in design, because if you live in New York City, you can’t not be – whether you know that or not,” Goodman says.

And she knows.

For more information, go to http://nymag.com/homedesign/

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Now she practices landscape architecture in Bilbao, South Korea and Memphis, Tenn.

A former professor of landscape history at Yale University’s School of Architecture, and a partner in Cesar Pelli’s firm, she established Balmori Associates in 1990.

And she specializes in managing change.

“Change has become much faster,” she says.  “If there one thing that landscape architecture has to do today, it is to deal with constant change – and not only that but with how it s accelerating, and how frequently.”

High water and extreme weather are playing a big role.  And nowhere is that more true than in Memphis, where the Mississippi River rises and falls, floods and recedes, on a regular basis.

But that’s where her firm is finishing up a longstanding project, at river’s edge near the end of Beale Street, the legendary blues venue.  They’re creating a public space for music at night, right where all the boats pull up.  There will be a cutting-edge docking system, plenty of space for parking cars, and an innovative set of “trays” for public spaces.

“Each one is at a different level, because the water on the Mississippi varies wildly – we anticipate that some will be covered during the year,” she says.

The “trays” are a physical embodiment of a design perspective that chooses to accept nature as it is, and change as it changes.

“We do not believe in having to build all kinds of bastions to deal with water,” she says.

Instead, she prefers to place her emphasis on beauty and creativity – to make visible the things found in nature – the sunshine, rain, wind and snow.

“Enormous beauty adds delight to your life,” she says.

That’s an attitude she now demonstrates all around the globe.

For more information, go to http://www.balmori.com

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And at ICFF this year, he’s sharing what he recently discerned on a January tour of Norway.

He’s curated an exhibit featuring the work of 21 emerging young Norwegian designers, age 18 to 40.  Some are still in school, and some are just out.  But all show promise in “The Essence of Things: New Designs from Norway,” Makovsky’s hand-picked collection of home furnishings prototypes.

“This is work that hasn’t been seen in North America before,” he says.  “It’s exciting – when you think of Scandinavian design, you usually think of Denmark, Finland or Sweden. You rarely think of Norwegian design.”

But there’s a rich history of design in that country, and these 21 are adding their perspectives to it.  Not the least of them is Stine Aas, who’s currently finishing her third year at Bergen National Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway.

Her DISPLAYAWAY is a new interpretation of the traditional glass-fronted cabinet. Light’s reflected through it, to give a shadow effect of objects placed inside.  She says it gives everyday objects new value, and offers an experience without requiring anything from the user.

“The great thing about Norwegian designers is that they have a high sense of process,” he says.  “All of these pieces are in working condition – they’re ready to be used.”

Among them are chairs, small tables, household accessories, glass objects, wooden objects and candlestick holders.  Some are available in limited production, and others are seeking more distribution in the U.S.  But each offers up a distinctive design edge.

“I’m always pulling for the underdog,” he says.  “If you ask someone to name a designer from Norway, a lot of people just go blank.  But the work here is very strong.”

And until now, it’s been relatively undiscovered.

The exhibition’s on display through Tuesday at ICFF, then moves to Los Angeles and Dwell on Design in June.

For more information, go to http://insidenorway.tumblr.com/designers

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Besides serving as editor-in-chief of Organic Gardening, she’s just written a book on Cecil Ross Pinsent.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell – well, that’s exactly why she wrote it.

Pinsent was an English architect who worked in and around Florence, Italy in the first half of the 20^th century.   While others were doing Italianate gardens in the U.S. and England, he was working with the originals – like the Villa Medici.  He labored mightily on two fronts: he kept his clients happy while respecting the places in which he worked.

Moreover, he did it all while the profession was in transition.  “He was educated in the Arts & Craft tradition, when architecture was going through a huge revolution, moving from classical landscapes and into a more modern style,” she says.

At Villa La Balze, he took on the entire project, helping to choose the site, designing the villa as well as all the decorative motifs.  In its grotto, he created shelves to hold busts of major philosophers, working with Italian craftsmen to get the pieces precisely the way he wanted them.

“He designed the latches on the windows, the carpets on the floor, and the garden – he did it all,” she says.  “He was known best for helping to shape what we think of today as the beautiful, romantic Italian gardens and villas.  He had a light touch.”

Pinsent was the architecture of choice for the Anglo-American expatriate community living in Florence.  Edith Wharton sought his advice; Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson admired and were influenced by his work.  Geoffrey Scott, author of The Architecture of Humanism, dedicated the book to him.

Alas, Pinsent, gifted though he might have been, was not one for self promotion.  “He was unable to articulate his ideas,” she says.  “At the end of his life, he remarked that he’d never chased recognition, but that it was too late now.”

The result was decades of neglect.  “He was completely overlooked,” she says.

But that’s about to change.

For more information, go to http://books.wwnorton.com/books/An-Infinity-of-Graces/

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That year there were 35 participants.  This year, there will be 80.  Six thousand people attended last year; this year, about 9,000 are expected to attend, between May 18-20.

WantedDesign has established its reputation as a meeting point for artisans, designers, manufacturers, students and design lovers.  What began as an event dedicated to design in the Americas has evolved to include France, Sweden, Turkey, Italy, Austria, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Guatemala, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

“This is a curated show – we try to bring in the best in what’s new and undiscovered,” says Odile Hainaut, who co-founded WantedDesign with Claire Pijoulat.  “People come because it’s exciting – not just to look at the products, but to talk to the designers.”

In addition to a roster of international designers and a conversation series, the pair are planning a design school workshop, a wallpaper workshop and a pop-up store.  They’re partnering with Ligne Roset, Bernhardt Design, Design Within Reach (DWR), and HP to develop ideas to get participants involved with the global design community.

“It’s for two kinds of people – people from the design industry, including manufacturers and brands who need design, and those who can design products,” she says.  “It’s about bringing people together – connecting those who don’t usually connect.”

DWR will present nine products by emerging designers, as well as the new Helix Table by Chris Hardy.  The HP-sponsored wallpaper workshop will be an active space where designers, architects and artists can engage in custom wallpaper designs.  At the Launch Pad, participants can view a selection of market-ready prototypes from 20 international design studios and independent designers seeking a manufacturer or distributor.

It all takes place at Terminal Stores – The Tunnel, 269 11th Avenue, between 27th and 28^th Streets.  Hours are 10 AM to 7 PM.

For more information, go to http://2013.wanteddesignnyc.com/

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Or to collaborate with Mike D of The Beastie Boys.

Or to see your work installed on the walls of the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn.

No.  If you’re Jon Sherman, creative director at Flavor Paper, you’ll want to create your own booth at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and paper the walls of the café there too.

“We always introduce new collections for ICFF in the spring,” he says.  “And always, we’ll show a different variety of artists and styles.”

Like “Vigilant Floral,” with its security camera-and-razor-wire motif by Dan Funderburgh, a wry commentary on the state of the 21^st century.  Or “Zelda” by Jane Blevin, just in time for Baz Luhrmann’s film of the book that Scott Fitzgerald’s wife named.  Or “Musical Mandela,” Sherman’s own design with musical patterns in microphones and guitars.

But “City of Light” is the real dazzler, he says of a second Jane Blevin design.  “We’re showing it as two, three or four colors and teasing a lot out of this fairly simple pattern, in our booth and the café.”

Flavor Paper is a 10-year-old wall covering, fabric and digital printing manufacturer, known for tasty designs and thought-provoking installations. Sherman started it up in New Orleans, then moved to Pacific Street in Brooklyn.  He collaborates with Tibi Fashion House, Kravitz Design and Milton Glaser.  Clients include Nike, W Hotels and the architectural IAC building in New York, by Frank Gehry.

He succeeds because he’s flexible.  “We allow people to interchange the colors, with an openness to print anything,” he says.  “We want it to fit into any environment or scale, and be user-friendly across the board.”

He considers the firm’s award-winning work for Interior Design’s “House of the Year” a bonus.

But wait – there’s more.  Sherman just wrapped up a speaking engagement at Bklyn Designs over the weekend, and Flavor Paper is among the top-tier design brands selected for the new “Destination: NYC Store at the Museum of Modern Art” for Design Week, starting May 15.

That ought to be enough for anybody.

For more information, go to http://www.flavorpaper.com/

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There’s proof enough of that at Juvia, the Miami Beach restaurant he placed atop the ninth floor of a Herzog & de Meuron-designed building at 1111 Lincoln Road, right in the heart of things.

Under a retractable roof, a communal table – actually a 24-foot long slab of petrified wood, previously under water for 500 years – lies alongside a 22-foot high plant wall.  A celestial fountain with wrap-around sofas is situated at the center of the terrace.  Table tops are limestone, and the bar is made of purple amethyst.

“When the elevator doors open, I want diners to put themselves in another place – a place that’s relaxed,” he says.  “It’s a total design experience – there’s not one piece of the restaurant that doesn’t have a view of nature and the sunset.”

It’s 10,000 square feet, seating 100 inside and another 100 on the terrace, with panoramic views of the Miami skyline.  The vertical garden is by French botanist Patric Blanc; seating and lighting are by Patricia Urquiola, Piero Lissoni and Thomas Patterson.  The indoor/outdoor experience, with floor-to-ceiling windows, is unlike any other dining experience in the city.

“When we began, I went to all the restaurants that might be serious competitors,” he says.  “I wanted to come up with a design that’s not common in the design world.”

He named his restaurant after the South American tree that bears the Brazil nut, then inserted a jungle oasis into the white concrete structure.

“Miami, for me, is white, so the color palette is white with gray, brown and purple accents,” he says.  “Plus, there’s wood – a warm material that connects to the beach – on the walls in the elevator and the entrance areas.”

Juvia’s made an impression, in all the right places.  Last week, the James Beard Foundation  recognized it with its Outstanding Restaurant Design award for spaces 76 seats and over.

That comes as little surprise to Barrios-Carrero, who created a restaurant with personality all its own.

“It’s sexy, fresh and timeless,” he says.  “It makes people feel good – they don’t want to leave when they come in.”

He cut no corners – and the results have paid off handsomely.

For more information, go to http://www.juviamiami.com/

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Pair up the work of contemporary French furniture designer Jacques Jarrige with signature pieces by the late 20^th century masters who inspire him.

That means bringing together tables, chairs, chandeliers and screens by Gio Ponti, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Royers. George Nakashima, Johnny Swing and Donald Judd – all touchstones for Jarrige’s work today – with some of his own designs.

“The pieces from the 20^th century have a timelessness created by the designers,” says Valerie Goodman, who co-curated a new exhibition called “Affinities” with Helena Barquet of the Sebastian + Barquet Gallery.  “Helena suggested a dialog between Jarrige and some of these designers – she started putting them together, pairing them,” she says.

Each Jarrige piece that curator Goodman selected for the show connects in one way or another with the design objects that Jarrige himself chose from the Sebastian + Barquet Gallery collection. They are, she says, the ancestors and soul mates of Jarrige’s own creations.

“These are pieces for collectors and decorators who enjoy the classic European style of the 1940s and ‘50s and ‘60s,” she says.  “There’s timelessness and simplicity, but we wanted to liven it up, to make it more dynamic and contemporary.”

For example, Donald Judd’s boxy armchair might seem to have little in common with the tremulous lines of Jarrige’s Meander series, partly inspired by his long-term work with psychiatric patients.  But in this endeavor, Jarrige has elevated their amateur awkwardness into a tender and deliberate imperfection that prizes hand over machine.

“The pieces do talk to each other,” she says.  “You get a lot of movement from them, and their dynamics.”

“Affinities” opens at the Sebastian + Barquet Gallery on May 14 and runs through May 22, timed to correspond with Frieze, Design Week and ICFF.

For more information, go to http://www.sebastianbarquet.com/

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