A recital of classical music and presentations by two acclaimed photographers will happen at The Church this weekend, starting Friday at 6 p.m. when Nana Miyoshi will perform a program of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Mozart.
The 18-year-old Japanese pianist, who has been playing since she was 3, will be performing ahead of her solo recital debuts at Carnegie Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Tickets are $30, $25 for members of the Sag Harbor cultural center.
Martin Schoeller, whose work is included in The Church’s current exhibition, “A Thousand Words: Photography at The New Yorker,” will talk about his life and practice on Saturday afternoon at 4.
Schoeller, who began taking pictures for The New Yorker in 1998, has contributed to many other publications as well, among them National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Time, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and GQ.
Growing up in Germany, he was influenced by August Sander’s portraits of the poor, the working class, and the bourgeoisie, as well as by Bernd and Hilla Becher, conceptual artists known for their images of industrial buildings and structures. In a statement on his website, Schoeller says, “After seeing Bernd and Hilla Becher’s water tower series in 1991, I was inspired by the idea of photographing a large group of subjects in the exact same style.”
The result is his “Close Up” series, for which he photographed more than 3,000 subjects from similar angles and with the same equipment. The results emphasize in equal measure the facial features of his subjects, who range from the anonymous and homeless to such notables as Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Viola Davis, Dolly Parton, Warren Buffett, and Jane Goodall. His image of the football quarterback Colin Kaepernick for Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign won the D&AD Black Pencil award.
His other photos include female bodybuilders, death row exonerees, Holocaust survivors, homeless, and identical twins and triplets. The close-ups in the show are Cindy Sherman and Valentino.
Schoeller’s portraits are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Museo Jumex in Mexico City, and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Australia.
Tickets are $25, $20 for members.
Bill Armstrong, a fine-art photographer based in New York City, will be at The Church on Sunday at noon to discuss the process behind his book “All a Blur: Photographs From the Infinity Series.”
A body of work that has been ongoing since 1997, “The Infinity Series” features compositions made by “appropriating images and subjecting them to a series of manipulations — photocopying, cutting, pasting, re-photographing” — transforming the originals and giving them new meaning in a new context, according to a statement on his website. Re-photographing with the focus ring set on infinity results in extreme blurring and causes the edges within the collages to disappear.
In addition to discussing his creative process, Armstrong will address the processes of editing and photo selection involved in making a photography book. He should know. In addition to “All a Blur,” he has published four other books of photographs.
His “Sistine Gestures, Last Judgment” is a permanent installation in the Vatican Museums at the foot of the stairs to the Sistine Chapel. His work is also in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and many others.
Tickets are $10, free for members who R.S.V.P.
Bunni Brown, a writer and artist in residence at The Church, will lead a fictional storytelling workshop on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. The class will delve into the process of narrative development and world building through research, writing, and self-reflection.
During the session, participants will explore how themes of magic-surrealism and improvisation can be used to blend fact and fiction. To create their own unique perspectives of a personal mythology, they will draw inspiration from a chosen piece of ephemera (a photograph or postcard) and a short story or nursery rhyme. They will also spend time reading and evaluating selected folktales to examine how myths can impart values and ideals.
Participants have been asked to take a photograph or postcard, a printed copy of a short story or nursery rhyme that moves them, a notebook, and a pen or pencil. Tickets are $40.
An Artists and Makers Night will take place next Thursday evening from 6 to 9. “Creatives of all types” have been invited to come together and make art along with The Church’s current artists in residence, Brown, Kylee Snow, and Daniella Williams. Participants can visit their studios to see their work and talk about process.
Attendees are responsible for taking all their own supplies, including easels. The Church provides its studio, including tables and chairs. Space is limited, so reserving a place through the venue’s website will guarantee a spot. Artists are responsible for their own cleanup, which should begin half an hour before the event concludes. Use of the etching press will not be permitted.
Tickets are $10, free for members, who are required to R.S.V.P. in advance.
