This week marks the final chapter of the poverty awareness photojournalism exhibit entitled "In our own backyard". This exhibit has crisscrossed the United States for the past 18 months and next week the exhibit finishes in Washington DC at the annual Leadership Summit for Catholic Charities.

Since this is the final and highest profile stop of the tour, all of the large format images are being reprinted and remounted, which is close to 120 images.

It is a very moving set of images, that address all manners of poverty and everyday life. It is really hard not to stop and soak up the texture and realism of each image.

This has been a challenging and gratifying project. One of the best parts of this project has been working with Steve Liss. He is a natural-born educator and an amazing photojournalist who gets right into the thick of it. Please visit his web site at: SteveLiss.com.

It has 18 months since the last Max Becherer update. Just to refresh, we came to know Max five years ago when we hosted his photojournalism exhibit entitled "Through the lens; Life in Iraq". Max has been in Iraq since the very beginning of the conflict (remember "shock and awe"?) and has seen action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gaza.

Max has since gotten married and splits his time between Cairo, Egypt and California when he isn't in the field. He is still a combat photojournalist and he is still extremely talented. Max's work has been featured in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The New Yorker, US News and World Report and Men's Health.

Recently Newsweek Magazine asked Max to retrace the Iraq invasion in reverse, using his photos. That feature can be found here.

After you visit that site, please visit Max's website and enjoy his talent. It is rare to see photography this deep in the action.

Half of the fun of framing (and it is very fun) is researching the art. This was a piece that was recently acquired in an art auction and this artist merits the research.

The piece is entitled "Nude & Flowers" from 1964 and painted by Russell Patterson. It is 12"x16" and it is an oil on hardboard.

Patterson was a fascinating personality who lived from 1893 to 1977. He began his career as a magazine illustrator working for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan and Redbook. During this period he achieved celebrity status as an illustrator of beautiful women.

In the early 1930's he became restless and decided to become a Broadway costume designer for several successful Broadway productions. By the end of the 1930's he had moved to Hollywood to work on scene and costume design.

Again he became restless and developed a comic strip called 'Mamie', which became a Sunday syndicated cartoon that ran for six years. The Mamie character was glamorously portrayed, which leveraged his artistic talent and his sense of fashion.

By the 1960's he reverted back to being a fine art artist, but was not above exploiting his celebrity status by being a judge for Miss America and Miss Universe pageants and endorsing Medaglia D'Oro coffee and Lord Calvert whiskey.

Patterson was a renaissance man who grew up in the public eye. He enjoyed new challenges and he especially enjoyed his high profile status in the media.

Now the challenge becomes how to best frame this original that does this artist justice.