Picture Black Friday

Picture Black Friday | Window Shopping

Don't be a Grinch.

Group show of selected images from past PBF submissions

Curated by Elizabeth Barragan

Begin viewing video and please expand and enjoy the music.

Christmastime is here and it begins earlier and earlier every year. Marked by BLACK FRIDAY, a day of unbridled sales to feed the consumer, the true tinge of the seasons will be piped in like a noxious gas onto our everyday psyche, and we will love it or hate it, but accept it as an American Way and rite of passage into our holidays.


The mission of Picture Black Friday is to give photographers an opportunity to document with their lens this day on their own terms - an open assignment if you will. I was given that same opportunity by founder John Saponara and Photo Gallerino founder Ruben Natal-San Miguel to curate the first PBF exhibition online and at a gallery space - on my own terms.


So with the same excitement, joy and sincere glee, I have created a short video with images from past PBF participants and have added music to accompany my selections. In addition, I've added a few video clips of some of my favorite holiday songs and/or movies. My point is to find the joy in these images. To present to the viewer the anticipation, thrill and heartbreak one feels around this time of year. In essence holidays can be a big let down because of the human condition to consume. This year as we face harsh economic downturns, with little solutions on the horizon, we still have family, friends and community. It is around these sentiments that I look away from the cynical views and try to find some triumph of the human spirit.


You see, to be fair, I LOVE Christmas and I have been one of these people in the photographs - camping in line before the sun is up or waging war with other drivers trying to park at the mall. I have also been the sales clerk, up before the sun, preparing myself and my staff for the longest and most cruel day of the year in retail. Funny, but most everything I learned was taught to me working behind the cash wrap at the GAP on BLACK FRIDAY. In the end, we all want to be part of something and make our loved ones happy. Purchases and gifts will never truly satiate what we are really after, but just like a character out of a holiday movie, we hope our heart grows 3x that day or it will end with a glorious sing-a-long.


I will admit to having fallen out of love with window shopping and I don't go out on BLACK FRIDAY. I have found shopping online during CyberMonday to be more my style. To me though, Thanksgiving Day and the days there after, signal more times with friends, family and a longing to see the world as a community that shares in the meaning of Christmas - on its own terms.


Picture Black Friday, Window Shopping - Don't Be A Grinch is a bittersweet homage to BLACK FRIDAY. And like Will Ferrel's character in the movie Elf, I can't wait for Santa to arrive!

Christmas Cuts:

ELF


Charlie Brown Christmas


Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas





Picture Black Friday | Window Shopping
November 18-22, 2011, Opening Reception, Friday, November 18, 2011, 7-9pm
547 West 27th Street, 6th Floor, Room 628, Chelsea, NYC 10001
For submissions and more information, please visit: www.pictureblackfriday.org