Month: May 2022

Richard Estes: Painter. With No Prefixes.

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*unless otherwise credited)

Part 1 of a series looking at the work of Richard Estes in honor of his 90th Birthday, May 14, 2022. The next two parts are below this one.

Kenn Sava, Untitled, NYC, May 27, 2020 (Homage to Richard Estes). One example of how Richard Estes has effected how I see the world every day, taken a few days after his 88th Birthday. Click any image for full size.

I fell under the spell of Richard Estes’s Paintings of New York City around 1985. In 1989, I bought his Cafeteria, Vatican screenprint from the publisher, Robert Feldman of Parasol Press downtown.

Richard Estes, Cafeteria, Vatican (from Urban Landscapes III), 1981, Screenprint, 14 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches. Over 30 years later, it speaks to me every bit as much as the first moment I saw it. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. Mine is this does not look like a Photograph. In fact, the differences between it and a Photograph are why I like it.

37 years on his work has lost none its hold on me. More importantly, I credit Richard Estes with teaching me how to really see the world around me through his Art. In honor of his 90th Birthday, May 14, 2022, I decided to take a closer look at his entire body of work to date, and, as importantly, the issues surrounding it that have held back its wider appreciation in a 3-Part series, this being Part 1. In this Part, I’ll address some of the issues surrounding his Art that have held back the wider appreciation of it.

The Master in his workshop. Richard Estes seen at work in his apartment overlooking Central Park. It looks to me like he is working on a Painting with waterfalls, though it’s not one I recognize. Date and *Photographer unknown.

During these 37 years that I’ve been looking at the work of Richard Estes, the incessant hype about him is that he is supposed to be “the leader of the photorealists,” “the standard bearer of photorealism,” or words to that effect culminating with a form of the term, “photorealism.” Increasingly, I’ve been left to wonder…

Did anyone ever bother to ASK Richard Estes if he wants to be the “standard bearer of photorealism?1” Or, even if he even considers himself to be a “photorealist?”

In the book Richard Estes’ Realism, I found this answer-

“Estes dislikes all the titles given the artists working from photographs and thinks of himself strictly as a painter, with no prefixes2.”

“BINGO! Game Over. Please pass your scorecards to the front, and make sure your names are on them…” For what it’s worth, I do, too.

Victoria Falls II, 2015, Oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches. Show me one inch of this that looks like a Photograph. In this piece, I’m featuring examples of his work in “other” styles. Click for a closer look.

It galls me to no end that the Art press continues to ignore the words of Artists about their own Art!

They act like they know better than the Artist! Chuck Close was repeatedly on record stating in no uncertain terms that he did not want his work to be considered “photorealism.” He and I spoke about this twice and I was taken by the passion in his words rejecting it. It was obvious to me that this was something he had fought long and hard about. Yet, when he died last year, almost every obituary I saw, including that in The New York Times itself, where he had previously spoken against it in an interview, used this term in describing his work! Where is the respect? The same fate has befallen Richard Estes, and I believe a good deal of his work doesn’t come anywhere close to fitting into that box! I am featuring some of these Paintings (there are innumerable others) in this piece so you can see for yourself. It begs the question- Are the people who use these terms even looking at the Art?

Ngorongoro Crater II, 2015, Oil on panel, 12 x 22 inches. Is ANYthing in this work sharply detailed?

Why does this matter? It matters for a few reasons. First, I believe Richard Estes mis-association as a so-called photorealist has held back the full appreciation of his Art. That full appreciation reveals he is MUCH more talented than a mere mechanical Photo replicating machine, and he is much more diverse a Painter stylistically than has generally been acknowledged, or appreciated.

That would be the Museum of Art & Design show, 2015, where I met Mr. Estes at the opening. The show was a “retrospective” of his Paintings with NYC as their subject, only! It would be six years before his next NYC show, at a gallery in 2021. *Still from the Documentary Richard Estes: Actually Iconic.

Second, so-called “photorealism” has been dead for decades, at least to the powers that be in U.S. Art museums. Don’t think so? Ask yourself this- How many shows of Artists so boxed have been mounted in major U.S. museums in the past decade? Richard Estes got two, his first museum shows in multiple decades! (The “big 6” NYC major museums3 have never had an Estes show.) Not many others got any4. It seems to me that most people have stopped looking beyond the technique when they hear or read this term used about the Art they’re looking at. The “content” is something never discussed. Wait! Isn’t THAT what Art is supposed o be “about?” (However you want to define “about.”) Beyond this, putting any Artist, or person, in a box is limiting and just plain wrong, particularly creative people. Do you want to be in a box? I don’t. Putting Artists in boxes without their consent is to possibly damage their careers, and their livelihoods, as Artists have told me. Some are reluctant to speak out about it for fear of “making trouble” or being ostracized. If the public has been led to expect, say, “Cubo-rectilinear-obtustroism” from one Artist and he or she becomes a “Progo-constro-pressionist” the public is suddenly “disappointed!” Yes, I just invented “Cubo-rectilinear-obtustroism,” and “Progo-constro-pressionist” and why not? Non-artists were the first to apply many of these “ism” boxes to Artists. Yes, there are Artists who use terms like photorealism to describe their Art, and that’s perfectly fine, of course. I’m saying it’s wrong to lump Artists into boxes without their consent. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if an Artist sues someone who boxed them without their permission one of these days. That’s what the stakes are.

Ngorongoro Crater I, 2015, Oil on panel, 13. 3/4 x 11 7/8 inches.

“…but his (Richard Estes’s) work has never been strictly about the duplication of a photograph or about total adherence to his photographic sources,” Richard Estes’ Realism5.

A keyword for me in that statement is “NEVER.” For those of you not up on your meaningless/pointless Art terms (good for you!), a “photorealist” is, supposedly, an Artist who perfectly renders a Photograph, usually in paint. It seems to me that if Richard Estes wanted to perfectly render a Photograph, or if a Photograph perfectly captured a scene the way he sees it in his mind’s eye, he’d be a Photographer, and not a Painter! Like many of these terms, there is supposed to be a “movement” around it. Yet, I can find no evidence of any of the Artists so branded ever getting together around shared ideals and goals and deciding to begin such a movement! Regarding Richard Estes’s involvement in this imaginary “movement,” Richard Estes’ Realism says,“Before his affiliation with the Allan Stone Gallery in 1968, Estes knew no successful contemporary artists, and until mid-1969 he was unaware of the other contemporary US painters working from photographs who were then independently emerging on both coasts,[2 ibid].” The words “independently emerging” show the lie in the use of the word “movement” in this case. I believe the term “movement” is used by those coining the phrase preceding it to make others feel they’re “not in the know.” In 9 of 10 cases where this word is invoked in Art it has absolutely no other meaning. That’s right. In almost the case of every so-called Art “movement,” there was no group who got together about anything! Don’t believe the hype! Ignore it. Look at the work for yourself. I hope and believe these terms will eventually fade into antiquation and make every book that used them seem out of date, and “not in the know.” “Great grandpa, I’ve never heard this term before. What was a “photo realist?”

Bus With Reflection of the Flatiron Building, 1966-67, seen at Richard Estes: Painting New York City, in September, 2015. Richard Estes’s “mature” work begins here.

“I think I started using reflections to give more of an abstract quality to the paintings, to make them look less like a photo,” he said.6

Wait! That’s sheer photorealism blasphemy! The “movement” better have a meeting (their first) and pick a new “standard bearer!” Yes, Richard Estes begins with a reference Photograph or Photographs he took, but so what? Painters have been doing that for well over 100 years. That’s NOT the point!

137 years in this case. Unknown Photographer, Untitled, Portrait of the Model apparently used by Cézanne for his Painting, The Bather, 1885(!), now in MoMA’s permanent collection. Seen in my piece on Cézanne Drawing.

Most of them, including Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Thomas Eakins, Charles Sheeler, Ralston Crawford, Francis Bacon, Rod Penner or Jordan Casteel, haven’t been stuck in this box. Richard Estes uses his Photographs as references but always at the service of what he sees in his mind’s eye and what he feels looks “right” on the canvas for his conception of a given scene. As a result, in Tower Bridge, London, 1989, he includes St. Paul’s Cathedral in a scene where it wouldn’t be seen in real life, in Brooklyn Bridge, 1991, Mr. Estes had to enlarge the background skyline from the Empire State Building south to Wall Street to make sure it was even seen, and in Hiroshima he literally moved mountains- those that are right of the city to the background. Once I knew that, I didn’t take anything I saw in his work literally. I threw the “photo baby” out with the bath water.

Rhianna, 2012, Oil on panel, 12 x 24 inches. While most of his Urban Landscapes are sharply detailed, this one isn’t. Almost nothing here, save for the lettering on the sign, is in sharp focus.

That helped open my mind, and my eyes, to seeing “more,” to begin to look deeper than his unsurpassed technical mastery. That led me to the unasked question when it comes to any so-called photorealist Art, and to Richard Estes’s Art- What is his Art about? I’ll get to my take on it in Part 2.

View in Nepal, 2010 Oil on canvas, 32 x 43 inches. This doesn’t look like this in “real life.” In this work, only the snow-capped peak might be in sharp detail. Given this work’s size, I think it was designed to be seen from a distance, assuming the viewer’s attention would be on that central peak. Therefore, it seems to me it’s Painted the way the eye would see the peak, with everything else out of focus. Richard Estes has Painted in this style frequently, ever since he began spending his summers in Maine. It’s completely different from his Urban Landscapes of NYC and elsewhere where everything is in sharp focus. Would anyone call this “photorealist?”

Now, I see an Artist who Paints in a number of different styles- some sharp edged and apparently representational, with everything in focus from the foreground to the very back, other pieces “soft” and down right impressionistic (used as an adjective, not as a form of the word often used to connote a group of French Artists in the 19th century that I’m still not convinced were an actual “movement.” They were grouped together by a writer because they had to sell their work outside of the official Salon which rejected it). And, in a good many of his Paintings there are passages of abstraction- some quite large. What this tells me is that Richard Estes in an extremely talented Painter who maintains the freedom to go stylistically where his muse and the subject at hand takes him, and NOT a mere replication machine who’s a slave to a Photograph. In Part 3, I look at two works that define this, for me.

Late Afternoon Tide, Provincetown II, 2006, Oil on panel, 13 1/2 x 20 1/8 inches. When I look at this, I see an Artist under no pressure to create what’s “expected” of him. That’s just me.

Richard Estes gives us work based on Photographs that are translated through something no camera has- his human brain, with his unique intellect, to show what he wants us to see, as rendered through his remarkable hands and unique skill. This is what makes him that most human of terms- an Artist- something no device or machine is, at least to me. In his case, an Artist deserving more serious attention than he has received in his first 90 years. Of course, both his initial Photographs and the end Painting are the product of his eyes, and it is through these that he matches his original intention in taking his source Photographs with the resulting Painting, adding in, or changing, what was not present in the real world to match what he sees and feels inside. This is what differentiates him from a mere replicating machine.

Viva la différence!

-My observations based on 35 years of looking at Richard Estes’s body of work to date as a whole are in Part 2 of this series, below, or here. 
-The final Part 3 looks at two more recent Self-Portraits, which I feel stand apart from the rest of his work, here.
-My piece on Richard Estes’s Corner Cafe, 2013, may be seen here. 
–My look at the 2015 Richard Estes: Painting New York City show at the Museum of Art & Design may be seen here.
-My piece “Death to Boxes!” is here.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Don’t Believe the Hype” by Chuck D & Public Enemy from It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988.

“Don’t believe the hype
Don’t—
Don’t—
Don’t—
Don’t believe the hype*”

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  1. https://msfineart.com/viewing-room/33-richard-estes-voyages/ ↩
  2. Patterson Sims, Richard Estes’ Realism, P.10. Mr. Sims was apparently there when Mr. Estes said this. Yet, he calls his work “Richard Estes’ Realism,” substituting one box for another. ↩
  3. The Met, MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney, the New Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. ↩
  4. I’m not counting Chuck Close for the reasons just stated. ↩
  5. ibid, p.10 ↩
  6.  New York Times, March 8, 2015  ↩

Richard Estes Art: What I See

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

This is Part 2 of my look at the work of Richard Estes on his 90th Birthday, May 14, 2022. Part 1 is above, or here. Part 3 is here. 

Over most of my 35+ years of looking at the work of Richard Estes, I’ve simply enjoyed looking at it, and it certainly lends itself to that. As I’ve already said in Part 1, one result of all that looking is that his Art has come to shape the way I see the world around me. As he turns 90, his Painting career has now spanned more than 55 years1! Recently, I began asking myself “What does it all mean?” This Part looks at what I see.

Richard Estes, Antarctica II, 2013, Oil on panel, 16 3/4 x 22 3/4, seen at the show’s entrance. Click for full size.

In Antarctica II from 2013, we see an iceberg floating in a large body of water with a smaller piece of ice, possibly broken off of it, floating on its own. To the left is the hull of the ship apparently containing the Artist on one of his many voyages to a far away land, with the side of a lifeboat visible above. The boat’s wake radiates out towards the berg as the boat moves towards it. One reading of this piece would be man’s impact on Antarctica, which has left it in a precarious state, represented by his alien vessel encroaching on the iceberg’s realm, its wake about to make contact with it.

Not so fast…

“Richard Estes avows that his realism has no hidden meanings, special messages, or stories to tell. Political positions and posturing about the human condition are alien to his art,” in a conversation with Patterson Sims per Patterson Sims, Richard Estes’ Realism2.

Given what I wrote in Part 1 about people disrespecting the Artist’s word on his own Art, though this is not a direct quote (something I address further on), I’m not going back on that now. It is impossible, however, for me not to see the effects of global warming in Antarctica II. How to reconcile this?

Unlike the blockbuster Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror, which was originally scheduled to coincide with Mr. Johns’s 90th Birthday in 2020, before the virus closed everything, as far as I know at the moment (in early May, 2022), nothing is planned in the Art world to celebrate Richard Estes’s 90th Birthday. My series might be it! Seriously?

Richard Estes: Voyages installation view of View in Nepal, 2010, Oil on canvas, 32 by 43 inches. Part of the show was very nicely installed in the large office space. In Part 1, I wrote about how I believe this work is conceived. Installed like this makes standing close to it difficult, and so the eye is almost forced to the central, white, peak, causing everything in front of it to be out of focus. It’s really a marvelous and somewhat daring composition for this reason, and a stunning contrast to Richard Estes’s Urban Landscapes, like the one to follow…

The closest NYC Art event that might qualify was Richard Estes: Voyages at Menconi & Schoelkopf in July, 2021, the first show of his work here since the Museum of Art & Design’s Richard Estes: Painting New York City in 2015, which I looked at here. Containing about 30 pieces covering the range of his subjects, Voyages featured more recent work. The theme of the show was ostensibly the annual trips and voyages Mr. Estes has taken over many years and the Paintings that have resulted from them, though these were juxtaposed with some of his iconic NYC Urban Landscapes3. An experienced world traveler at this point, his journeys have taken him to the far corners of the globe. At first, being completely taken by his views of NYC, I didn’t know what to make of the resulting views of forests, bodies of water, mountains and deserts that began emanating from his hand after his travels, first to Maine, then ever further afield. All the while, he still continued to give us his iconic Paintings of New York City, and other cities. When I walked into Voyages and saw the Urban Landscapes alongside African landscapes, Antarctic vistas, and deserts, I finally decided to sit down and do a reconciliation of his entire career and try and finally understand what, if anything, his whole body of work is saying to me.

First, Voyages reveals Richard Estes has been as busy Painting as ever. In 2021, at age 89(!), he Painted this-

Brooklyn Diner, 2021(!), Oil on canvas, 37 x 55 1/4 inches. I was dumbstruck when I first saw this. I just hope I can still out of bed if/when I’m 89.

It’s a statement in more ways than one. First, it’s apparent even at a glance that he has lost none of his world-class technique! When I finally finished marveling at that, I began to ponder the unusual composition. I decided to take a look-see for myself. I jumped on the A Train and made a trip to the real Brooklyn Diner, which turned out to be a bit of an outlier on West 57th Street, to see what I could learn from the actual site.

Brooklyn Diner seen from just behind the spot Richard Estes depicts. July 1, 2021. Notice how the “real” view lines up, or doesn’t line up, with the Painting. If I were standing closer, nearer that railing, as in the Painting, I wouldn’t be able to get the same view of the door, without a wider angle lens. The very wide 23mm lens I’m using here barely holds it, and I had to step back to get this! Suffice it to say I wasn’t able to take a Photo that exactly matches the Painting! Therefore, my Photo is not so-called “Paintingrealism,” to coin a box I hope no one uses. See important footnote-4.

Seeing it in person raised all sorts of questions about the Painting. Diner manager Guy told me the scaffolding, not to be seen now, was up from July to around Christmas, 2019, for HVAC work on the roof. Even though the scaffolding is gone, the building is exactly the same as it was. As you can see, I was unable to duplicate the view of the building in Mr. Estes’s Painting in a Photo in spite of using a wide-angle 23mm lens! Being the most colorful place in the area, and that area being Richard Estes’ extended neighborhood, I then wondered why he didn’t render it before or after the repairs. Then, I quickly remembered that over the last decade or so, Mr. Estes has Painted quite a few buildings fronted with scaffolding (another is shown further below).

Booklyn Diner, July 1, 2021. The trees in front of it make its signage a bit less commanding, partially hiding it, like the scaffolding in the Painting does. The trees are our of the frame to the left in the Painting.

Scaffolding adds yet another layer to the countless layers many of his street scenes already had- exterior, reflections, interior, rear exterior, which often adds another level of complexity to the geometry of the whole thing, not to mention another layer of technical difficulty. It also adds mystery. It’s interesting to me that here, the top of the building is cut off. On the main sign to the left, you cannot read “Brooklyn,” and “Diner” is hard to see fully. Neither is legible on the sign to the right. In fact, if he didn’t name the Painting Brooklyn Diner, you wouldn’t know what this place was! This “selective editing” makes me feel that the facade, with its candy color, distantly Art Deco echo, is not the point of the piece, though it’s what catches the eye when you see either the Painting or the actual Diner on the street. The ways he has changed the scene are fascinating. Again, I wonder “Why?” The only conclusion I can make from this is that Mr. Estes is making the scene into what he wants to express.

The Diner sits, incongruously, a half a block, but worlds away from, the glitz, glamour and Artistry of, Carnegie Hall, and directly across the street from the legendary & historic Art Students League. This location is not far from Mr. Estes’s NYC apartment, and that fact has led him to render innumerable sites in this neighborhood in Paint over his long career.

West 57th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues looking east. That’s Carnegie Hall, lit up left, Brooklyn Diner, behind the trees, right. My back is to the Art Students League. July, 2021.

In pondering why he chooses his subjects (which I still often do), I find something quite interesting about this location, and it’s shown in this photo- Richard Estes is a known lover of  Classical Music. Yet, he has never Painted Carnegie Hall, the most famous Classical Music concert hall in the country and one of the most famous in the world! In Brooklyn Diner, a glow of a light may be seen at the far left nearer the top. That may be from Carnegie’s lights as shown here. That’s as close as he’s gotten! It begs the question “With all the buildings he’s depicted in the area, why hasn’t he Painted Carnegie Hall?” As for this subject, he has given un an unorthodox view of Brooklyn Diner, putting the focus of this work in an odd place. I imagine that if 100 other Painters chose to paint the Booklyn Diner, this is not the view we would get. From the street, the neon sign is the most striking thing about the Diner. In Mr. Estes’s Painting, the sign is cut and is far away from the center/focal point of the work. Instead, front and center are details of the scaffolding. What to make of this?

Wholesome Foods, #2, 2018, Oil on panel, 16 x 22 1/4 inches. Another of Richard Estes’s scaffolding Paintings, and another in which the scaffolding is font and center. The woman sitting behind it in the window is engulfed by the detritus of the modern world- glass, steel, wood, paper, cars, buildings, trees, and the materials she’s wearing. In this wonderful composition, which harkens back to, and updates, Edward Hopper’s similar scenes, and a store window reflection Photograph by Eugene Atget, which Mr. Estes has in his collection, she becomes just another element, or someone seen behind glass. I see this as a reminder of how the modern urban world forces its inhabitants to live, a scene that might look as odd to viewers in 300 years as Canaletto’s scenes of Venice look to us today. The geometry and depth of this piece is extraordinarily multi-dimensional, beautiful and ugly at the same time.

 “I don’t enjoy looking at the things I paint, so why should you enjoy it?…I’m not trying to make propaganda for New York, or anything. I think I would tear down most of the places I paint.’” 5.

Those are not idle words. Richard Estes started out to be an Architect before he became an illustrator, and finally a Painter. When I looked at Corner Cafe, 2014-15, from the Painting New York City show, his most recent work at that time, I found that Mr. Estes had not eaten there. I don’t know, but I would imagine the same might be the case for the Brooklyn Diner. So much for a Painting of a place from a personal experience. If we remove personal experience from his choice of subject here (hypothetically) we’re left with something about this site inspiring the Artist creatively. It’s hard for me to look at Wholesome Foods, #2, or Brooklyn Diner, or any of the scaffolding Estes and not think he’s (symbolically) “X”ing out what we’re looking at, given what he said. In the case of Wholesome Foods, #2, possibly with multiple large, literal “Xs.” “… I would tear down most of the places I paint,” leaves it up to the viewer to decide which places he means. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t Painted Carnegie Hall?

Times Square, 2004, Oil on canvas, 64 1/8 x 37 inches. Click on it to be fully engulfed. Seen at his 2015 Museum of Art & Design show, this may be the most technically astounding Painting I’ve ever seen, along with any Painting by Jan van Eyck. Having stood on this spot before, during and after 2004, I can certainly verify the overwhelming visual noise that still is Times Square, something that has never been more faithfully realized than it is here. Like most New Yorkers, including this one, maybe Richard Estes would like to see it torn down? Still, the Painting would live on as a reminder of how we actually lived here in 2004. “Progress” since the time of Canaletto (1697-1768)? It could also be read as a comment along those lines.

Overall, I see Richard Estes as a direct successor to the Artists he has named as influences- Canaletto, his nephew Bellotto, Thomas Cole, Frederic Church and Thomas Eakins. All of these Artists depicted the world around them without an ostensible “message,” though Thomas Cole also created the series The Course of Empire, in 1833-6, which I looked at here, that do appear to have a message. After the fact, Conservation has come to be seen as one interpretation of Cole, Church and their contemporaries, who were lumped in the Hudson River School box by someone else. That aside, I look at Richard Estes’s work the same way I look at any of theirs.

Richard Estes, Corner Cafe, 2014-15, the newest work shown in his Museum of Art & Design Painting New York City show, and seen there in 2015. Oil on Canvas. The Artist was only 83 when he Painted this. I visited the actual Corner Cafe shortly after seeing it. Interestingly, due to a large phone booth in the way, I again had great difficulty trying to duplicate the view seen in the Painting in a Photo, as you can see here!

I get similar feelings looking at some of Mr. Estes’s Urban Landscapes, like Wholesome Foods, #2, Corner Cafe and Horn & Hardart, 1967 that I get looking at Edward Hopper’s urban scenes, including Nighthawks, as I said in my 2016 look at Mr. Estes’s Corner Cafe. This is incredibly rare. Though countless other Artists have tried to emulate Hopper, (which I am not saying Mr. Estes is) I can’t say I’ve felt that from any of them. Seven years after I first saw it, I still get that feeling when I look at Corner Cafe, which I now feel is a masterpiece.

When taken as a whole, the 55 year & counting body of Paintings & Prints he’s created, some interesting things become apparent. Looking back over more than a half century, Richard Estes’s Paintings show us two worlds.

Antarctica II, 2007. Oil on panel, 26 3/8 x 57 inches. Canaletto (1697-1768) lived 300 years ago. In 300 years, will people look at this as something they can relate to in their world, or something from the lost past?

First, the world he lives in and around in NYC, and to a lesser extent, the other cities he has visited & Painted around the world- i.e. his so-called Urban Landscapes6. The second is the world he lives in and around his second home in Maine, and the natural world he has visited on his many trips to other lands. Both groups can be summarized thus- 1) Works depicting the world built by man on the one hand, and, 2) Works depicting the unbuilt, natural world on the other. There is obvious intention in this. Mr. Estes has chosen each and every subject he has Painted. Outside of a handful of Portraits (some commissions, some gifts), I’m leaving nothing out of his oeuvre in saying this. It’s incredibly rare in Art history to find ANY Artist who’s entire body of work fits so neatly into two categories!

Voyages, installation view of the second gallery. NYC Urban Landscapes on the left wall, Antarctica Paintings on the right, one of each to the far left and far fright is cut off.

Seeing some of each of the categories on view face to face in Voyages brought this duality home for me in a convincing fashion. On one wall in the second gallery, left above, a rotating selection of Paintings of Manhattan faced a selection of Paintings of Antarctica on the opposite wall, right. For me, this summed up his career to date in a nutshell. The city scapes show the city (NYC, London, Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, etc) on typical days, much like the Venice Canaletto and Bellotto show us. Mr. Estes’s Paintings of the natural world seem to follow in the long tradition of landscapes by American Artists, including Thomas Cole, Church, et al, as well as Edward Hopper’s views of Maine (among many other Artists who have preceded Mr. Estes and lived & worked in Maine. Thomas Cole also Painted Mount Desert, Maine, the subject of a number of Mr. Estes’s Paintings).

ATM, 2018, Oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches. In this marvelous Urban Landscape, it seems to me that only the three empty chairs in the mid foreground are in sharp focus, doing something Mr. Estes does in many of his pieces- de-emphasizing human subjects to avoid the narrative as I’ve heard him say- even when there are people present in the Painting. No Painter known to me Paints the modern city like Richard Estes. This Painting is hanging to the far left, just out of the frame in the prior picture.

His Paintings of the man-made world (i.e. his Urban Landscapes) might well be called New Topographic if they were Photographs because it seems to me  they see the world through the same lens as the legendary New Topographics Photography show at the Kodak Museum in Rochester in 1975, which focused on the “Man-Altered Landscape,” the show’s subtitle. Mr. Estes’s NYC Paintings predate this show by 7 or 8 years, though the Photographers included in it were working at the same time he was. I have no information that either Mr. Estes knew these Photographers or their work, then or now.

Antarctica I, 2013, Oil on panel, 14 3/4 x 20 inches. Another Antarctica Painting brings me back to what I said I saw in Antarctica II up top.

“Richard Estes avows that his realism has no hidden meanings, special messages, or stories to tell. Political positions and posturing about the human condition are alien to his art,7.”

So, how to reconcile what I said about in the beginning of this piece about Antarctica II with this? Mr. Sims’s words are not an actual quote, and so are less than ideal. As I said, Richard Estes has chosen to show us each and every one of these sites, so there is obvious intention in that. The two facing walls I showed in Voyages were in his show, so there is intention in that, too. Beyond this, he is directly quoted (shown earlier) saying that he would like to see many of the sites he has Painted torn down. Is he fearful of the loss of much of the natural world during his lifetime? He is known to be actively involved in conservation efforts, particularly in Maine. Is he recording both the man-made and the state of the natural world for future generations? Given the time he has spent studying Canaletto and Thomas Cole, even visiting sites they Painted, I would say it is possible. Yet, it must be admitted that Mr. Estes may simply be an observant onlooker at the ever-changing world he’s seen first hand near and far, then creating Paintings that express what he’s experienced. As I’ve demonstrated, these are NOT verbatim depictions. He’s an Artist, not a replicating machine, as I showed in Part 1. Regardless of the nebulous statement from Mr. Sims above, Mr. Estes intends exactly what he shows us, aided by a technique that is the equal of that only a very few Artists in Art history have had to render his intentions as clearly as is humanly possible. He also is well aware that every viewer will see in his work what they will, as he sees, has seen, and is himself influenced by, those he admires who have come before him.

What will our world look like to people 300 years from now? A viewer looks at Canalellto’s Piazza San Marco, 1720s, in 2019, almost exactly 300 years after it was Painted, at The Met. While I have no doubt that Richard Estes, himself, has stood in this spot any number of times, this isn’t just any viewer. This is Lana Hattan, who pushed me to start NighthawkNYC in 2015. Seen here on one of the last times I’ve seen her, December 14, 2019. If you find this site worthwhile, you owe her your thanks. Without her push, it wouldn’t be here.

Richard Estes’s Paintings speak for themselves, and they should be allowed to- beyond boxes or other limitations.  The Artist doesn’t need to stand up and say, “This Painting is about _____.” They are what they are. Look for yourself at them and see what they say to you. 

“I see what I see,” as Frank Stella says. For me, Richard Estes has Painted the most compelling record of the New York City of my lifetime in it. He has also created a beautiful record of much of what’s left of the natural world. It’s a record of the world in his time- what’s been built by man, and and what’s left of the natural world, rendered through the hands and mind of an Artist. I see a “dialogue” going on when I look at both bodies of his work. In the end, intentionally or not, his work shows the condition of the world in his (and our) time. Including (again, intentionally or not), depictions of a number of key issues modern man faces and has created.

I can only wonder what viewers in hundreds of years will make of what he shows us. I have a sneaking feeling that Richard Estes has thought a lot about this, too.

-The 3rd, and final, Part of this series, “Richard Estes: Two Manifestos” is below this one, or here.
-Part 1 is here.
-My piece on Richard Estes’s Corner Cafe, 2013, may be seen here. 
–My look at the 2015 Richard Estes: Painting New York City show at the Museum of Art & Design may be seen here.
-My piece “Death to Boxes!” is here.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Once in a Lifetime,” by David Byrne & Talking Heads, from Remain in Light, 1980, and performed here In Los Angeles in 1983, extracted from the Film Stop Making Sense–

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  1. From Bus with Reflection of the Flatiron Building, 1967,  shown in Part 1 ↩
  2.  P.1. Wait. Shouldn’t it read “Richard Estes avows that his Art has no…?” Substituting the “realism” box for the “photorealism” box isn’t any better, in my view. Richard Estes is a Painter- with no prefixes, in my book, the point of Part 1 of this series. Death to boxes! ↩
  3. Urban Landscapes is the title of 3 series of Screenprints the Artist has created. I showed one from my collection in Part 1. It was also the title of a show of Mr. Estes’s work in 1978 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. ↩
  4. After I finished this Part, I saw the book Richard Estes: Voyages. In it, Mr. Estes says that he now destroys his source Photographs because he doesn’t want them compared to the Painting. I understand and respect his decision. I saw a few of his source Photos in the 2015 M.A.D. Museum show and showed a few in my piece on Corner Cafe. To honor his feelings, I have revised that piece and removed them. I am publishing these because- a) they are not his source Photos, and b) because I feel they highlight the differences between actual locations and his Paintings, showing the lie to some of the hype around Richard Estes’s work, as I outlined in Part 1. It must be noted, and I think it is very interesting, that I was unable to replicate the view seen in both Brooklyn Diner, 2021, and Corner Cafe, 2014-15 when I visited both ↩
  5. ibid, p.1 ↩
  6. I’m including his so-called “Still Life” Paintings in this since they depict objects seen in windows or on shelves and are not studio setups. ↩
  7. In a conversation with Patterson Sims per Patterson Sims, Richard Estes’ Realism, P.1 ↩

Richard Estes: Two “Manifestos”

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*unless otherwise credited)

This is Part 3, the final part, of my look at the work of Richard Estes on his 90th Birthday, May 23, 2022. Part 1. Part 2.

As I look through the work of Richard Estes, two Paintings stand apart for me. Both are “Self-Portraits.” Though those words are in their titles, I put it in quotes though because you can’t really see the Artist in either one, only his shadow or ghost, and so they’re not typical Self-Portraits. Yet, that’s what the Artist has titled each. First, some context-

This ISN’T one of them. Double Self-Portrait, 1967, Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches. When I think of how Richard Estes taught me how to see, this is a prime example of it.  *Smithsonian Photo

Richard Estes has been given us a few Self-Portraits and de facto Self-Portraits dating back to 1967’s Double Self-Portrait, which is now in MoMA. In other Paintings, we see his shadow on the landscape, though these are not titled “Self-Portraits.” In 2015, at the Museum of Art & Designs, Richard Estes: Painting New York City show, which I wrote about here, I was taken by a Self-Portrait, dated 2013, one of the most recent Paintings in the show, hung near the end of it. I can’t say I’d seen anything like it in Richard Estes’s oeuvre to that point.

Self-Portrait, 2013, Oil.on board, 15 x 13 inches. The Artist “seen” on the Staten Island Ferry. Another work that further effected how I see the world. Seen in Richard Estes: Painting New York City at the Museum of Art & Design in 2015.

I put a picture of it up and I’ve looked at it often these past 7 years since I first saw it. In it, the body of the ferry is rendered in crystal clear and vibrantly colored detail. You can clearly see the texture of the paint on the ship, a Painting of paint by the Artist! The eye makes out the shape of a torso and we are to assume that this is the titular “Self-Portrait.” Apparently, the Artist is holding a camera, though the center of Mr. Estes’s head and upper chest, where the camera would be, is missing or hidden by reflections.

Detail of the “Painting inside the Painting.” The “abstract” Richard Estes in full effect- in the real world!

The window acts as a sort of frame for the main part of the composition. Inside that “frame” things are completely different. Nothing is in sharp detail, though everything is sublimely Painted. Silvery lines lead the eye further and further back to the NYC skyline lining what may be the “background,” though it’s hard to tell. It, too, is out of focus and indistinguishable to the point that I can’t identify any of the buildings. Richard Estes: Abstractionist? His work DOESN’T need another box!

What to make of this?

My personal view is that this may be something of a “manifesto.” In it, Mr. Estes shows that he is perfectly capable of Painting wonderfully in multiple styles, and he, represented by the mysterious partial shadow, won’t be “defined” by one, i.e. a sharply detailed Portrait, like we see in Double Self-Portrait up top. HOW can this be called so-called photorealism when you can’t even clearly see the “Self-Portrait” in a work titled just that? Yes, he can paint crystal clearly- when it suits him and his purpose, but he’s perfectly able, and apt, to Paint however he needs to to achieve his purpose.

Thinking about this further, Painting up until the beginning of the 20th century was strictly “representational.” Around the turn of the century, Artist like Hilma af Klint, Kandinsky, Monet and others, began exploring abstraction. Abstraction became the 2nd great type of Art in Art history. In Self-Portrait, 2013, I see both, side by side, as they appear in the real world.

In summing up the Art of Richard Estes, in my opinion, Richard Estes’s represents nothing less than a kind of culmination of the history of Painting in a way. He is among the first to combine representational and abstraction in his Art, even if he has done it unintentionally. This is what I see it when I look at his Art. In my view, THIS is something that should be receiving a lot more attention than it has gotten (i.e. almost none). It hasn’t because people are too busy being limited by what his work is “supposed” to be, as decreed by the box makers. They think that is all his Art is, as I said in Part 1! That’s because they’ve stopped looking at it. To wit-

In July, 2021, at Richard Estes: Voyages, I was stopped by another recent Self-Portrait, this one strategically installed half way through the show.

Self-Portrait in Copenhagen, 2019, Oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches. The Artist seen 52 years after Double Self-Portrait!

Again, this piece has been on my mind from the moment I first saw it. It shares some elements with the Ferry Self-Portrait, like the row of lines leading the eye further and further in, and the central titular dark shape with the “head” missing. This time, the “frame” of the outside world, that served to “ground” the Ferry Self-Portrait, to prepare the viewer (in a way) for the abstraction, has been removed. That means NOTHING in this piece is sharply rendered! EVERYTHING in it is nebulous. In that regard, it strikes as an “evolution” from the 2013 Ferry Self-Portrait- now, the whole Painting is that “Painting in a Painting” I showed earlier inside the Ferry Self-Portait(!). It is, perhaps, its logical culmination.

Detail of the center.

NOTHING in focus is downright shocking to see in a finished Painting by Richard Estes (which I assume it is since it was in his shows in NYC, London and Florida). To top it off, parts of it appear to be unfinished! Obviously, given its exhibition history, this is intentional. As a result, it’s hard for me to not see it as an extension of the “manifesto” of the 2013 Ferry Self-Portrait. Mr. Estes is showing us he will Paint as he pleases- without the expectations of anyone.

Detail of the right section. Note the figure exiting to the right. This section looks to me more like something by Neo Rauch than Richard Estes.

Look! That figure on the far right is only half Painted! His or her torso is only outlined! There is nothing like this in Richard Estes’s oeuvre since 1967!

A Self-Portrait is a Portrait created by an Artist of his or herself. If I read these last two Self-Portraits literally, they are how the Artist sees himself, and in my view, how he sees his Painting. In the 2013 Ferry Self-Portrait, he shows us his mastery of multiple styles and uses them to present representation and abstraction in the same piece (as I see it). In his 2019 Self-Portrait in Copenhagen we see the Artist completely comfortable in showing us only a “looser,” FREER (a keyword about this piece for me), uninhibited, and perhaps MORE PAINTERLY style than we have seen in an entire Painting since 1967.

This says to me “THIS is how I see myself, and my Painting.”

Many more, Mr. Estes!

*-Soundtrack for this Post is a wonderful, surprise, blending of Beethoven’s Eroica with Happy Birthday for Sir Roger Norrington on his 84th as performed by the SWR Symphonieorchester borrowed for the 90th of this fan of Classical Music-

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 1/2 years, during which 320 full-length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate by PayPal to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

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Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Ahndraya Parlato.

Photographer & Professor Ahndraya Parlato is also a mom to two young daughters and a wife. That’s more to juggle than I can even begin to imagine. Yet, somehow, through it all, she’s managed to create, and co-create, three PhotoBooks that linger in the mind and place her among the more interesting Photographers to emerge in the past decade. In fact, these past five years, any time someone has asked me who was either a very over-looked Photographer, or the Photographer deserving wider recognition, her name was the first I mentioned.

The cover of Who is Changed and Who is Dead

In 2021, she released her third PhotoBook, Who is Changed and Who is Dead, a NighthawkNYC NoteWorthy PhotoBook of the Year, published by Mack Books, her second monograph following 2016’s A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, published by Kehrer. They were preceded by a collaboration with Mr. Parlato, Gregory Halpern, published by Études Books in 2014 titled East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon. Ostensibly, the subject this time is Ms. Parlato’s mom’s suicide. A victim of parental suicide myself, somewhat amazingly, her’s is the first book I have come across to address the subject. She deserves much credit for daring to broach this topic few are apparently willing to speak about (understandably). All three of Ahndraya’s books have two part names. In the case of Who is Changed and Who is Dead, the subject has three parts: her late mother, herself, and her 2 young daughters (most frequently addressed as a pair, even when she starts out referring to one of them. Ava and Iris Halpern-Parlato are the only two of the three to actually appear in person in the book’s Photos, though all three subjects appear equally in Ahndraya’s extremely personal & revelatory text. 

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead. “SPOILER: THEY DIE,” the text reads…

When I first got Who is Changed, I delved right into the text, the first Ahndraya has written in one of her books. The fellow victim in me was looking to see how her mother’s suicide effected her and how she handled it. (Disclaimer- Of course, the book is not intended or designed to be read this way. It’s a PhotoBook!) Reading the text as a whole gave me the chance to hear her voice without interruption.

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

It turns out the book is more a “snap shot” of Ahndraya in 2021: her life to this point, and her life with her children. As such, it’s a book that will provide comfort and reassurance to new moms, particularly those who are also Artists. Though the text is written in compact sections, there is a lot to unpack, and more to process. Part 1 is titled “To My Children,” and starts with a wish for a long and happy life for both of them followed, after a coma, by an acknowledgement of understanding the “desire to go out together,” apparently born in her mother’s suggestion that the two of them jump out of a window of a NYC building when Ahndraya was in 3rd grade! It’s in moments like this that the subject of suicide bubbles to the surface, like it quite possibly does in the lives of other suicide victims. Tender reminiscences of her grandmother and mother follow, before she goes on to reveal her own fears of dying-

“I want to be alive. I need to be alive. I’m scared of dying because you need me.”

Part 2 is titled “To My Mother,” but both parts quickly revert back to the thing that is always on her mind (understandably): her children’s well-being. Ava and Iris appear, singly, in a number of her Photos, in at least one instance the appearance was unplanned1. They add hope (and stress), to the aftereffects of tragedy, and a reminder that life is a continuum. Life is also incredibly precious and incredibly fragile, and perhaps there is no one more vulnerable than the very young, or the very old. This comes through on virtually every page of her text.

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

In my reading, it turns out that her mom’s suicide is more of a subtext that is always there, yet, her book offers much more than the reassurance that we victims are not alone, as valuable as that is. In it, we learn that Ahndraya’s mom’s mom (Ahndraya’s grandmother) also died horrifically, murdered by someone she knew, and we get glimpses of life with a mother who was sent to a psychiatric hospital after drinking ammonia, when Ahndraya was in 3rd grade, and then was diagnosed as a as a paranoid schizophrenic. As she weaves episodes from her own biography into the text, never far from her mind are her worries are her fears for her young daughters, understandably. Reading them, I was struck by how she never mentions her own mother’s worries and fears for her, at how she ALWAYS appears to be an adult, and usually  the parent. Even when she addresses us at age 3. Perhaps, this is because there is almost nothing of her mom in her own younger years here. When we meet her, she is already suffering from the illness that may have led to her death. The text is not linear and flows across time as it will, and reads in ways that are partially reminiscent of a diary, partially as conversations in thought with the subject. Her own chronology gets disjointed as a result, and I gave up trying to plot her geographical life’s course, yet the point is always, firmly, in the immediate moment. Born in Kailua, Hawaii, Ahndraya went on to earn a B.A. in photography from Bard College and an M.F.A. from California College of the Arts, where she studied with Todd Hido, in who’s class she met Gregory Halpern (Mr. Hido told me with obvious pride). 

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

I got so lost in the text that weeks, then months, went by before I actually looked at her Photographs! When I did, I quickly found that many are striking and linger indefinitely in the mind. Nothing Strange there. I’ve been taken with her Photography going back to her first monograph, A Spectacle And Nothing Strange, published in 2016. The Photos include images of her mom’s ashes sprinkled on photo paper, printed glossy, to show-stopping effect as shown above. Elsewhere, her daughters pose by themselves or with plants, in ways that look nothing like Sally Mann’s iconic images of her children.

The end result is a unique book that allows the reader to begin to piece together the Artist’s life’s journey from childhood, through difficult years with a mother who was ill before her suicide, to the struggles to process her mother’s death (part of which never ends), to her own motherhood and the worries and fears omnipresent in the crazy world we live in now. It’s hard enough to survive today without, also, trying to raise, care for, and protect children!

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

And ALSO be an Artist! Reading Who Is Changed took me back to my readings on Alice Neel, who was able to keep her Art career going, though at the cost of her personal life, in very hard times and difficult circumstances. In some ways, she was a role model for Contemporary female Artists. In other ways, perhaps she’s not an ideal role model. At least, by having children and having a long Art career, she proved it CAN be done. Today, Artists like Ms. Parlato have found ways to achieve a healthier balance between Art & family, even in these insane times, which makes them all the more admirable.

The other sub theme of Who Is Changed is the author’s verbal and visual efforts to make peace with her mom and her death. This is the real work for all survivors, and something, I for one feel, the person committing suicide probably never thought about how long and hard the road ahead would be for their victims- those who loved them they leave behind. In Ahndraya’s case, I only hope it helped.

As I mentioned, Who is Changed is not the only wonderful PhotoBooks Ahndraya has published. 

East of the Sun, West of the Moon, A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, Who is Changed and Who is Dead, left to right.

Her initial release, the collaboration East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon, published in France by Etudes in 2014, saw its 300 copies disappear before I became aware of it and started looking for it. Luckily, in late 2021, the publisher found some unsold copies and I was able to finally see it. It turned out to be worth every moment of the anticipation.

From *East of the Sun, West of the Moon, by Ahndraya Parlato & Gregory Halpern

At the time they collaborated, Gregory Halpern had already released Harvard Works, the first, small edition, of Omaha Sketchbook, and A. East Of The Sun is a magical book full of mystery. I quickly gave up trying to figure out its biggest mystery- attempting to determine which image bore more of the mark of one or the other- it’a a true, and seamless, collaboration. East Of The Sun loves to present straight forward Photos with a twist.

Of course the city boy would particularly like this one…*From East of the Sun, West of the Moon, by Ahndraya Parlato & Gregory Halpern

Every single image is chocked full of questions for the viewer to get lost in. So far, I haven’t found a narrative, and the Photographers provide no written insights in the book itself. Elsewhere, I’ve read comments about it being shot on the Solstices and Equinoxes in 2012 and 2013, wherever they happened to be. Far be it for me to be able to tell from the Photographic evidence.

From *East of the Sun, West of the Moon, by Ahndraya Parlato & Gregory Halpern

I’m only left to think I sure missed a lot of mystery going on around me on those days.

From A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, Kehrer Verlag, 2016,  was my introduction to Ahndraya Parlato. A terrific book, It’s another book of magic and mystery though this one is firmly grounded in the earth, regardless of what may be going on in the calendar or the heavens above. Though it consists of Portraits, Landscapes and Sill Lifes, every image is a Still Life of life: moments that are not “decisive” in the Cartier-Bresson sense but are decisive in the sense of capturing the moment that linger in the mind: the stuff of memories. Both alien and familiar, they are the kind of images that remain in the mind as souvenirs of an experience. I’m sure there’s a story to each one, but I’m glad I don’t know them so each becomes new to me, again, every time I page through it, as I have often, particularly during the past two years I’ve spent in isolation.

From A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

The past few years have seen the Artist receive quite a bit of well-earned recognition. In 2017, Ahndraya was a Nominee for the prestigious ICP Infinity Award. In 2013, she was a New York Foundation for the Arts grant recipient, Magenta Foundation Emerging Photographer Award winner, and was also shortlisted for the MACK First Book Award. She has also been a Light Work grant recipient and a nominee for the Paul Huf Award from the FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, as well as the SECCA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art2.

While Ahndraya Parlato has received well-deserved recognition from the powers that be in the world of Photography, I still believe there is a bigger audience for her work out there.

My piece on Gregory Halpern’s PhotoBooks may be found here. 

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Sacrifice” by Björk, track 8 from her classic album, Biophilia, 2011. In the Biophilia app, the presentation for “Sacrifice” reads-

“Inspired by animal magic rituals and female sacrifice, Björk’s lyrics urge the listener to recognize the sacrifice made by all women for the sake of love.”

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  1. The Artist mentioned on social media. ↩
  2. Here. ↩

Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures

Show Seen: Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures @ Sean Kelly Gallery, January 14 – February 26, 2022

Alec Soth returned to Sean Kelly on 10th Avenue with a show of his latest body of work titled A Pound of Pictures. The show coincided with the publication of his latest PhotoBook of the same title published by London’s Mack Books. Mr. Soth has been a full member of Magnum Photos since 2008, during which time his popularity has steadily increased, so the arrival of new work is met with much curiosity and attention. I went for a look myself. I’ll also take this opportunity to survey his PhotoBooks to date, and make some recommendations in BookMarks, at the end.

“Get yourself a bride
And bring your children down to the river side.”*

A Pound of Pictures consists of Photographs Alec Soth took between 2018 and 2021 on various road trips around the country. There was no check list available, the first time in a long time I’ve seen that, so the titles are lacking.

The title of the exhibition, and the book, comes from a vendor Mr. Soth discovered on his travels in Los Angeles who sells photographs by the pound.

“Across the great divide
Just grab your hat, and take that ride”*

“Harvest moon shinin’ down from the sky, a weary sign for all
I’m gonna leave this one horse town, had to stall till the fall
Now I’m gonna crawl, across the great divide”*

“Across the great divide
And bring your children down to the river side.”*

Five smaller works shown in an alcove completed the display.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Across The Great Divide,” by J. Robbie Robertson and recorded on The Band in 1969.

BookMarks-
When it comes to making & publishing PhotoBooks, Alec Soth has been quite prolific. To date, he has produced books with Steidl, Mack Books and his own publishing house, Little Brown Mushroom creating plenty to explore. His first two books are contemporary classics among PhotoBooks released in this century, and are both highly recommended.

Sleeping By The Mississippi, his first book, was published by Steidl in 2004 in a decorative cloth cover, before being reissued twice by Steidl with pictorial covers- all three editions gong out of print and fetching substantial prices on the aftermarket. The cheaper alternative is the Mack Books reprint edition published in 2017 and still in print.

Mississippi was followed by Niagara, first published by Steidl in 2008, and was quite hard to find until Mack Books reissued it on its 10th anniversary in 2018, which is still available.

Among his other books, Songbook and Gathered Leaves, both published by Mack Books in 2015, are the two most noteworthy, and recommended. Songbook, a collection of black & white Photos, shot around the country, was first published by Mack Books in 2015. It is notorious for its lime green cover which is the most prone to fading book I have ever seen. Good luck finding a first edition/first printing with a truly green cover. Unfortunately, the way it fades, to a dead grass brown, completely ruins the original intention. I have no idea if later printings have fixed this issue. The only choice for buyers of a copy with a truly green cover is to NEVER let it see the light of day. Find the most light-proof covering or bag you can and store it some place dark. Recommended with that caution.

Gathered Leaves is an interesting box set/compilation of reduced size versions of four complete PhotoBooks by Mr. Soth- Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, and Songbook. At the time it was published, it was the only way for 99% of readers to see Broken Manual, (which was published by Mr. Soth & Steidl in 2010 in a limited edition which completely disappeared almost immediately), Mississippi, and Niagara, all three being mostly legends to those who missed them, and were out of print in 2015. Recommended because you get to see these four books complete, and in spite of the smaller size reproduction of the books.

Mack Books has just announced a new version of Gathered Leaves, to be released later this year. This time, five books are brought together in one large softcover- Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara (both originally published by Steidl), Broken Manual, Songbook are joined by the new A Pound of Pictures. Auspiciously missing from this group is I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, released in 2019. Is leaving it out entirely an indication that Mr. Soth feels I Know How Furiously is not as strong as his other books? I found it surprising, but I agree.

I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, 2019, Mack Books will be an essential purchase for Alec Soth fans and completists, I rank it as unnecessary for those seeking an overview or only the most essential books. Besides Broken Manual, which will run you thousands of dollars depending on what’s included, which I would include, Sleeping By The Mississippi and Niagara remain his essential books. Both remain affordable in the Mack Books editions.

The recently released A Pound of Pictures, published by Mack Books, is something of a return to form, another large-format, road trip based body of work, like Sleeping By The Mississippi and Songbook. Though not as strong as Mississippi or Niagara in my view, it retains Alec Soth’s curiosity and his ability to capture unexpected/incongruous combinations. Mr. Soth has continually experimented with format, layout and presentation throughout his PhotoBook career. Some succeed. Some a bit less so. I’m all for experimenting. I have some questions about Pound’s design from its curious covers (the title and Mr. Soth’s name appear in small type at the bottom of a long list on the front). I think the back cover should have been the front cover (ala the 3rd Steidl edition of Sleeping By The Mississippi), the front cover should have been the back cover. Inside, the prints, though a very nice size, seem to have a slightly faded look to them. When compared to the prints in the show (as seen above), the colors in the book lack a bit of “pop” to my eyes. Recommended, though after Sleeping By The Mississippi, Niagara and Songbook, among books readily available.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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