The Lounge Week 16: New York City

The Lounge is a virtual Art Gallery, updated weekly. This space will showcase emerging or underutilized photographers; or just people who I think we all need to have a look at. A bit of Eye Candy for Monday.

Why yes, I had a great time in New York, thanks for asking. Here’s my itinerary with pictures.

__________

As far as New York goes, nothing makes me swoon more than a Helen Levitt photograph. What luck that she would be showing in conjunction with Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Laurence Miller Gallery. This pairing is fitting, fantastic and unprecedented, save an article in a pulp photography magazine from the 50′s, which the gallerist was amused to show me when I asked.

I do love Cartier-Bresson but my heart aches for Levitt’s 30’s era portraits she took of the street culture, pre-TV, in Spanish Harlem. Mostly it’s kids being kids. They owned the street, and the gutter, and the brownstone steps. If I hadn’t already spent the 8 Grand sticker price on the trip, I would have jammed this in my carry-on:

Or this:

__________

And in Chelsea, some W. Eugene Smith at Silverstein. For those of us not from the centre of the universe, I still find it exciting to see, for the first time, photographs that I studied in school (I’ll never forget walking through Soho on my first ever trip to New York, glancing into a gallery and thinking “Wow, that artist is really reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat”. This was New York- of course it was Basquiat).

Smith’s work reminded me of something I have begun to lament- an absolute casualty of the new digital era- the dodge halo. I love the dodge halo. It gives the figure, who’s face is already glowing from the lightness of the dodging, a faint halo. Love the halo. Can we fake the halo in digital? That just doesn’t seem right.

__________

And in the face of the JFK comparisons Obama has garnered, I found the Danziger Project show of Magnum photographer Paul Fusco’s RFK Funeral Train procession, from New York City to Arlington Cemetery, poignant and topical.

The perspective of these shots seems reversed; the subjects of the photographs are staring at us and their collective, upward gaze is so uncertain. The act of witnessing is part of the photographic process- we take and show pictures so that others can virtually bear witness. In this case, we are virtually viewing the actual act of witnessing. Given that these shots never ran in LOOK, the mag who commissioned Paul Fusco to capture the procession crowds, I wonder how many of the subjects have seen these pictures?

For more on this exhibit and its context, check out the NY Times article here.

__________

The ICP has a interesting compilation of recent Japanese photography and video called Heavy Light.

Last time I was in New York I had just come out of a tiny elevator, returning from Tomoko Sawada’s first solo show (Zabriskie Gallery) when the massive Northeast Blackout happened. Despite some ominous associations for me, I enjoyed her new work in this group show and in fact I find the longevity of this self-portrait project has deepened its appeal.

And I wasn’t sure what to make of Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s Vegetable Weapon series. It’s just as weird and straightforward as it sounds. This is called Chicken and Spinach Risotto/Brisbane Australia:

__________

When invited out to after work drinks hosted by rep John Kenney my colleague assured me: “These guys have a lot of fans in New York”. A quick run down on what made this successful: free drinks, a crowd of my kind (as opposed to a one-on-one meeting), cool bar, no hard sell, just a get to know me, comfort-building exercise. They’ve got a bit of Can Con in their impressive roster. Here’s a little something from ex-pat Blaise Hayward:

__________

Those of you who want me to keep it commercial in this blog will be happy to hear that at the last moment I skipped the MoMA and went shopping instead. And thanks to Rachel Hullin at Shoot: The Blog (is there anything she can’t do?) I found a cute little shoe store and bought some snappy little pumps on sale. Coffee with Rachel and Photoshelter’s Director of Photography Meagan Ziegler-Haynes was lovely but off the record. Never mind, we mostly talked about Maine.