Kundalini Splendor

NOTE:  the book of photos by my dear friend Patricia Lay-Dorsey is now completed and ready for distribution.  This is a major event and marks the end of a journey of many years, in order to "get it right."  
Congratulations, Patricia.  We are all impressed with your ingenuity and determination to make this book a reality.


BOOK ORDERING INFO

My book publisher, Ffotogallery in Cardiff, Wales, is currently handling book orders for my self portrait book, Falling Into Place. I am attaching their press release that gives background on the project and book. Ffotogallery also has a special webpage where updated ordering information will always be available.

To order my book, you can email Becca Thomas at becca@ffotogallery.org and she will handle your order.

BOOK SPECIFICATIONS

Designed by Victoria Forrest, the hardback publication includes 50 colour images, an artist statement and biography, and texts by David Alan Harvey, Magnum photographer and Burn Magazine Editor, and David Drake, Director of Ffotogallery.
Illustration: 50 colour plates
Binding: Hardback 108 pages
Text: English
Publication date: December 2013
ISBN 978-1-872771-98-4
200mm x 240mm landscape
Price: £20 ( US $35)

FOVEA BOOK LAUNCH

Special thanks go to Stephanie Heimann Roland and Sabine Meyer, co-directors of Fovea Exhibitions in Beacon, NY where we held our World Premiere Book Launch on November 23, 2013. I am also grateful to Tim, Nancy, Ron, Ed, Rob, Laura, Mark and all the Fovea friends and volunteers who opened their homes, hearts and hands to help everything run smoothly. The evening was enriched by having my publisher David Drake, his wife Karen, and our book designer Victoria Forrest join us from the UK. And what would we have done without Brooklyn-based electronic music DJ illich Mujica? It was his music, collaboration and energy that turned a book signing into a dance party! Grandma Techno (Patricia L-D) was in seventh heaven.

SO WHAT NEXT?

Falling Into Place, the book and project, has work to do and it is up to me to follow her lead. Last month I presented slideshows and facilitated class discussions on disability at two meetings of the "Human Diversity and Social Change" class at Eastern Michigan University. I found it most rewarding and student evaluations made it clear the feeling was mutual. Prof. Ann Rall promises me there will be more such invitations next semester.

On January 30, 2014, the Grosse Pointe Public Library will host a Michigan book launch and slideshow presentation of Falling Into Place. It will be open to the public. On February 24, I will attend the formal opening of an exhibit of prints from Falling Into Place at the Central Michigan University library, followed by my being guest lecturer as part of the Clarke Historical Library Speaker Series. The next day and a half, I will be available to collaborate with CMU departments and students. In August-September 2014, Swords Into Plowshares and Peace Center Gallery in downtown Detroit will mount an exhibit of prints from Falling Into Place. We will be planning events and forums on disability to coincide with the exhibit.

If you have ideas for other presentations, university/school classes, community gatherings and/or exhibits, please let me know. Have book, will travel!

With warm wishes,
Patricia

Patricia Lay-Dorsey
Website: http://www.patricialaydorsey.com
Email: playdorsey@comcast.net
Mobile: 313-410-0454
Skype: patricialaydorsey
Instagram: patricialaydorsey
Detroit, Michigan USA
.........................................................................................................................................................

FFOTOGALLERY PRESS RELEASE

5 December 2013



Patricia Lay Dorsey

Falling into Place

New Ffotogallery book offers a fascinating and moving insider view of living with a disability.

Ffotogallery, the national development agency for photography in Wales has collaborated with Detroit based photographer Patricia Lay-Dorsey to produce a unique publication Falling into Place, which challenges our assumptions about disability and how it impacts on our ability to enjoy a rich and fulfilling lifestyle. The book, which was launched at the end of November 2013 in Beacon, New York, is a legacy project of Diffusion 2013, the first biennial Cardiff International Festival of Photography.

Lay-Dorsey was diagnosed with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis in 1988, and in 2008 began taking self-portraits with the intention of showing from the inside the day-to-day life of a person with a disability. The photographs chronicle the struggles and achievements of the artist as she learns to accept the limitations of her body and celebrate her abilities rather than her disability.

Taken together, the images build a compelling narrative about the artist's daily life which is both moving and offers a fascinating insider perspective. The project has won international awards and been featured on the NY Times Lens blog, Newsweek Japan, Slate Magazine's Behold blog, CBS News, ABC News and The Daily Mail (London) online.

Designed by award winning book designer Victoria Forrest, the hardback book includes 50 colour plates, and is published in a special limited edition of 1000 copies. Falling into Place also features an artist's statement and biography by Lay-Dorsey and texts by David Alan Harvey, Magnum photographer and Burn Magazine Editor, and David Drake, Director of Ffotogallery and Diffusion.

As well as being a beautiful document in its own right, Falling Into Place is an invaluable resource which will be distributed to schools and and disability rights organisations in the UK and USA. Lay-Dorsey and Ffotogallery last month launched a Kickstarter campaign to help contribute towards the printing and distribution costs of the publication. The campaign aimed to raise $5,000, but achieved 104 backers in 30 days raising a total of $7,065.

David Drake, Director of Ffotogallery, comments

“Ffotogallery is very proud to be publishing Falling into Place. In these self portraits Patricia has succeeded in producing an eloquent illustration of a life lived with disability, which will resonate far beyond the usual photographic audience. I am not aware of an artist in any discipline who has tackled this powerful subject as well as Lay-Dorsey. In documentary photography terms alone this is a remarkable autobiographical project that speaks beyond the purely literal to more universal concerns”.

For further information or to order a copy of the book please contact Rebecca Thomas, Marketing Officer, at becca@ffotogallery.org or +44 (0)29 2034 1667.


Notes to Editors:


Ffotogallery

As the major force for contemporary photography in Wales, Ffotogallery is recognised as the forum for contemporary debate and a focus for new developments in British and international photographic art. As a national organisation, its view is naturally outward looking, with an exhibition programme featuring photographers from Wales and the rest of the world. Ffotogallery seeks to widen its range of influence through touring exhibitions, collaborations with other organisations and galleries, through publications, and an expanding education programme. In 2013 Ffotogallery launched Diffusion, a new biennial Cardiff international festival of photography, which takes place in venues across Wales’ capital city.

www.ffotogallery.org

About the Artist

Born in Washington, DC in 1942, Patricia Lay-Dorsey brings her training as a social worker (MSW, Smith College School for Social Work, 1966) and over three decades as a visual artist to her work as a photographer.

Patricia’s self portrait project, Falling Into Place, was awarded 3rd prize in the 2010 FotoVisura Grant for Outstanding Personal Photography Project. It took a 1st prize award at the 2013 Photo Annual Awards in Prague and was exhibited during the summer of 2013 in the Final Wall Gallery Exhibition in Teplice, Czech Republic.

Falling Into Place had solo exhibits at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts (January 17-March 3, 2013), and at Fovea Exhibitions in Beacon, New York (April 13-July 7, 2013). It has been featured in Newsweek Japan and New Mobility Magazine and on the New York Times Lens blog, PDN Photo of the day, Visura Magazine and Burn Magazine, among others.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey’s website is http://www.patricialaydorsey.com