Photography

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2023- Two Masterpieces

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

PhotoBooks completely took over my life for over 6 years from 2016 through 2022, during which time I immersed myself in Modern & Contemporary Photography (which for me is the period after the publication of Robert Frank’s The Americans in 1958-9). After not publishing a NoteWorthy PhotoBooks list for 2022, two books stood out for me among the PhotoBooks I saw this year. Since I don’t believe the “best” exists in the Arts, I prefer to call them “NoteWorthy,” i.e. books I most highly recommend among all those I saw in 2023. Both are among the most powerful books I’ve seen in years. In my opinion, both books are masterpieces. Other recommended books follow them.

Both NoteWorthy PhotoBooks have two people in common. One, Kris Graves is no stranger to this list. His A Bleak Reality was a NoteWorthy PhotoBook of 2021. His publishing company Kris Graves Projects/Monolith Editions was the NoteWorthy PhotoBook Publisher of 2020 when they somehow managed to publish EIGHTEEN books during the pandemic! This year, Mr. Graves is the Photographer/Artist/Author of one of the two, and he and his Monolith Editions is the publisher of both books (co-publisher with Hatje Cantz of one). As a result, Kris Graves Projects/Monolith Editions are the NoteWorthy PhotoBook Publisher, again, for 2023.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2023

Jon Henry, Stranger Fruit, Monolith Editions

In a word: overwhelming.

“Stranger Fruit was created in response to the senseless murders of black men across the nation by police violence. Even with smart phones and dash cams recording the actions, more lives get cut short due to unnecessary and excessive violence. Who is next? Me? My brother? My friends?” Jon Henry

Mr Henry continues, “Lost in the furor of media coverage, lawsuits and protests is the plight of the mother. Who, regardless of the legal outcome, must carry on without her child. I set out to photograph mothers with their sons in their environment, reenacting what it must feel like to endure this pain. The mothers in the photographs have not lost their sons, but understand the reality, that this could happen to their family.”

The way Mr. Henry has chosen to depict these mothers and sons is in the form known in Painting and Sculpture as the “Pieta” (or pity). Traditionally, Jesus’s mother, Mary, holds her dead son on her lap after the Crucifixion. The “Pieta” has long been among the most powerful and poignant compositions in Western Art. To this point, and for the past 800 years, it’s been the exclusive realm of Painters and Sculptors (most famously Michelangelo).

Along comes Jon Henry, who shows that they can be every bit as powerful in Photography- even without a directly religious reference. He has chosen it to depict the unspeakable pain mothers of murdered Black sons must have experienced in the unique way of depicting mothers holding their living sons. I asked Mr. Henry how he came to use it in Stranger Fruit–

 “I grew up studying painting and religious iconography by way of stained glass windows in the church I worked in, so I was very familiar with the motif.  There were more contemporary uses of the pieta, such as Dr David Driskell and Renee Cox, that really made me believe I could use this as the vehicle behind this project.
But everything really revolved around the mother.  I know that my work is not the first to speak about police brutality in the african american community but I felt the mothers were left out of the conversation.  Focusing on them through this mother/son relationship was why the pieta made so much sense for me.”

 In Stranger Fruit (which is named after the Abel Meeropol 1937 song, “Strange Fruit,” protesting the lynching of Black Americans, and immortalized by Billie Holiday) we also get to hear from them. Most of the images are accompanied by a text written by the mother.

I was stunned when I picked this book up for the first time. As far as I know, no one has done anything like this before. Yes, there are combat images from too many wars and conflicts already that are Pietas. Yet, I’ve never seen an entire book of them, and only them. I asked Kris Graves how he discovered Jon, this remarkable body of work, and came to publish Stranger Fruit. He said, “I met Jon some years before the pandemic and he was already hard at work on the project. I told him then that I’d love to publish the work when he felt it was complete. During covid, I founded Monolith and it was an even better fit for the ideals of Stranger Fruit. Soon after, we reconnected and started production.”

The 600 copies of the 1st printing of Stranger Fruit have sold out. I’m told the recently announced 2nd printing is selling quickly. I look forward to the time when it’s no longer vital as a document of immediate social import, to when it can just be appreciated as a work of Art.

Kris Graves, Privileged Mediocrity, Monolith Editions/Hatje Cantz

One of the most important PhotoBooks released this century, Privileged Mediocrity is Kris Graves’s masterpiece among his fine books thus far, in my opinion.

From Part I- The Murder of Alton Sterling, Baton Rouge

Years in the making, involving extensive stretches of travel during the height of the covid pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Protests, at what must have been considerable personal risk, in the days leading to the birth of his first child, it feels to me like this is the book his work has been building toward all along.

From Part I– Slave Market, Charleston

It’s divided into three sections: “Part I: Privileged Mediocrity & The Deceived Within,” “Part II: A Southern Horror, 2020,” and “Part III: A Latency, 2000-2022.” Though Part I sets the stage  with images from NYC, New York State and Boston as well as the South, the book is centered on the South in Parts II & III. Mr. Graves visited innumerable Confederate monuments throughout the South, and shows them before, during and after the protests.

From Part II

“Part II: A Southern Horror, 2020,” is gravely presented with black & white Photos on black paper in which Mr. Graves inventories many of these problematic monuments by state and their connection to racism, which is downright chilling to see on page after page- 46 pages in all- many with up to 8 sites on a page! “Part III Latency 2000-22” shows many of these sites during and after the protests.

From Part III- George Floyd Projection, Richmond, Virginia. National Geographic Magazine put this image on the cover of its “Photos of the Year, 2020” issue. I asked Kris what he remembers about taking this classic and historic image. He said, “A few days into my Richmond trip, I was introduced to the projectionist, who was working at the protests. On a clear night, he set up at the Lee Monument and I headed out around midnight. It was lively out there, but peaceful. The projections of dozens that were killed by police were displayed for about one second at a time. I asked him to slow it down a bit then made pictures for a few hours. Got a good one.”

Progress has been too long in coming. Part 1 of Privileged Mediocrity speaks to that. When the damn of patience finally burst after yet more murders of unarmed Black men and women, Kris Graves documented a fleeting turning point in American history powerfully, and in his own way. He focuses on the evidence to be seen on the land: scenes of murders and monuments that are offensive to many and a real part of the ongoing problems. A number of them are seen feeling the brunt of the resulting frustration and anger.

From Part III- John Lewis High School, Springfield, Virginia

After the protests, we see images of the raw beginnings of whatever it is we are in now. In John Lewis High School, Springfield, Virginia, the sign for the school’s former name, Robert E. Lee High School, has been flipped around under its new name. The question these image leave may be “Where to now?” For me, along with all the horror, they also represent moments of hope. The book is dedicated to his newborn son.

From Part III- Self-Portrait with Stonewall Jackson Shrine, Woodford, Virginia

The American edition of Privileged Mediocrity consists of just 300 copies. My piece on meeting Kris Graves in 2018 here.

I mentioned that both NoteWorthy PhotoBooks have two people in common. In addition to Kris Graves, they both feature the work of the same designer, the ever-creative Caleb Cain Marcus of Luminosity Labs. Mr. Marcus has outdone himself in both books, in my view. With the supreme taste & restraint he displays in Stranger Fruit, and in, what strikes me, as pulling out all the stops in Privileged Mediocrity, as he bends the style to match each section of the book, for which he even designed a font.

Also Recommended-

Chris Killip, Thames & Hudson

In 2018, Chris Killip’s former student, Gregory Halpern, turned me on to Mr. Killip’s work. Unfortunately, the book he most highly recommended, In Flagrante, from 1988, has long been out of print and expensive, so I only caught a glimpse of it when Mr. Halpern gave a tour of his book shelves. I managed to get In Flagrante Two, 2016. which is now also out of print.

New in print is this wonderful retrospective that Mr. Killip (who died in October, 2020) did not live to see published, unfortunately. It’s beautifully done. I particularly appreciate its size and design. It’s almost 12 1/2 by 10, big without being oversized. The design is both tasteful and fresh, with the use of red being a great contrast to the mostly (but not all) black & white images. Looking at his work, Mr. Killip’s Portraits and Landscapes often have qualities I find in Rembrandt, one of the highest compliments I can pay any Artist, which are enhanced by his use of “unconventional” poses only found in life. A model Photography retrospective, it fittingly includes an essay by Mr. Halpern.

Trent Parke, Monument, Stanley/Barker

Being a city boy I have a real weakness for books depicting city life. But, I’ve seen too many that just leave me cold, and no, I’m not going to name which. Few and far between are those that really speak to me. Trent Parke’s Monument is one. Whereas most of the others are a string of Photos “connected” (if at all) by place, Monument is a look at the “alien world” Mr. Parke says he discovered when he moved to Sydney, Australia from a small country town. Mesmerized by the endless procession of workers to and fro day after day, he likened them to the countless moths that he saw at night, and includes, that were drawn by the bright lights of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Drawn to their death. Such is life in far too many places on Earth in 2023.

Entirely in black & white, with its minimal text only in Braille (which you’ll need to know to determine if your’s is a copy of the sold out 1st printing, or the upcoming 2nd printing), it’s a book that captures the fractured light of modern life going by in a blur as human moths go about chasing their own flame of a dream. Apparently, these Photos were taken before the pandemic as no one wears a mask. It’s beautifully designed & produced with Stanley/Barker in an embossed leather cover. Though it’s in black & white, Monument is one of the very few PhotoBooks I can think of that can bear up against Saul Leiter’s Early Color, perhaps the masterpiece of City photography of the books I’ve seen, which is one one of the most essential PhotoBooks of the 21st century in my view.

Jim Goldberg, Coming and Going, Mack Books

Jim Goldberg’s magnum opus (no pun intended) is a unique, visual autobiography, another tour de force of book design, as all of his books are. Coming and Going is autobiographical, though in classic Jim Goldberg style. Though there is no running text narrative, he feels free to write, draw or annotate on the images as he sees fit which helps guide the reader/viewer along. And who’s to argue with his choice? He’s forged a trademark style doing it that doesn’t age or look dated. Containing 360 13 by 11 inch pages, most of the material I have never seen before. There are stories, some featuring familiar characters from his prior books, though they are contained on 2-page spreads, which makes them look more like an Art work than a text. The story of his life moves forward on the power of his images, and that’s as it should be with such a one-of-a-kind Artist. A good number of them depict members of his family with love, understanding and poignancy, as they grow or age, even pass away.

Coming and Going is a LARGE book weighing in at 6 1/2 pounds, I wish it was a hardcover, instead of the stiff boards is covered with, because it’s a book that’s sure to see lots of handling and page-turning. Already at an $85. list, that probably would have added at least $5 to the cost. Then again, his classic Raised by Wolves was a softcover, too. Wolves remains THE classic Jim Goldberg book, but long-time fans will find much to get lost in in Coming and Going. 

Jay DeFeo: Photographic Works, Jay DeFeo Foundation/ DelMonico

I could very well have listed this in NoteWorthy Art Books, 2023, but it’s here to make a point. Jay DeFeo (1929-89) is, perhaps, best known for her Painting, The Rose, 1969, and as a Painter. Though she passed at 60 from cancer in 1990, her star has continued to rise steadily since. Now comes the revelation that she was, also, a Photographic Artist, as this book, and the accompanying show at Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC, shows. Not only that, she was a formidable Photographic Artist.

The “point” I’m trying to make, yet again, is that Jay DeFeo is another on a list that gets longer all the time- a list of Painters who were also accomplished Photographers. To this point, they continue to remain overlooked by the larger Photography community, which continues to baffle me.

The two works shown above in the book as seen in the current show Inventing Objects: Jay DeFeo’s Photographic Work at Paula Cooper Gallery, September 22, 2023.

Right now at MoMA as I write, the great Ed Ruscha is the subject of a blockbuster retrospective, Now/Then. In 2016, Bruce Conner, Jay DeFeo’s close friend for many years, received one at MoMA, which I wrote about here. Yet, L.A. and San Francisco Artists who came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s have been slow to receive the attention their East Coast counterparts have been enjoying for decades- particularly on the East Coast. Artists like Ed Kienholz quickly come to mind. Very near the top of the list, it’s way past time for the Jay DeFeo East Coast Retrospective.

Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well, Steidl is my last Also Recommended NoteWorthy PhotoBook for 2023. I wrote about it here.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Strange Fruit,” by Billie Holiday.

Be sure to see the companion list to this one- NoteWorthy Art Books, 2023

My previous NoteWorthy PhotoBook lists-

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2019. And others

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2020

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021

 

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NoteWorthy Art Shows: Spring, 2023

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

As I celebrate the 8th Anniversary of NighthawkNYC.com on July 15th, my thoughts turn to some excellent shows I saw but didn’t get a chance to write about! I’ll take a brief look at a few I call NoteWorthy here…

Robert Rauschenberg: Spreads and Scales @ Gladstone Gallery-

Robert Rauschenberg has been one of my favorite Artists since I discovered his work in the 1980s. In 2017, I wrote an extensive series on the plethora of shows going on around town then during what I termed “The Summer of Rauschenberg.” Spreads and Scales was a concise but very interesting show of work I’ve never seen before reinforcing my belief that no matter how much of his work you’ve seen, even 15 years after his passing in 2008, there’s work of his that you more than likely still haven’t seen.

William Christenberry & RaMell Ross: Desire Paths @ Pace-

RaMell Ross, Sleepy Church, 2014, left,  and William Christenberry, Church, Sprott, Alabama, 1981, both Pigment print mounted on dibond.

An interesting, unexpected paring of the work of the late Photographer, William Christenberry, perhaps best known for his association with William Eggleston, and the Academy Award Nominated Filmmaker & Artist, RaMell Ross, who I last saw in a solo show at Aperture Foundation in June, 2018. Interesting became compelling in its final gallery.

RaMell Ross, Return to Origin, 2021. From the upper left- the Artist working away while in transit, sealed in the box; two video stills- the truck after unloading the box, simultaneous shot of RaMell inside; one of the panels showing the Artist’s inscriptions during transit; the box labelled “DRY GOOD.”

There, sitting on the floor was a very large box cryptically labelled “DRY GOODS” in a large stencil on the exterior, I looked at it, noticed there was writing all around the inside and then when I was about to move on I saw the accompanying video. It turns out RaMell Ross created & used the box to reenact Henry Brown’s legendarily daring act of mailing himself out of slavery to freedom in 1849! Mr. Ross shipped himself, sealed in this box, from Rhode Island to Hale County, Alabama. The trip took 59 hours, all the while the contents were unknown to the contracted truck driver whose gooseneck rig was carrying the crate. The journey, captured on the video, was being shown on that nearby monitor. In addition to reminding today’s viewers of Mr. Brown’s incredible feat (in a smaller box), it also reminds me of the preciousness of freedom. Something not fully appreciated, until it’s gone.

Uta Barth @ Tanya Bonakdar-

Frozen poetry. …and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.10), 2011, Inkjet Prints.

Compositions 5, 12 & 7, left to right, each Inkjet Prints from 2011, seen next to a street-facing picture window. Uta Barth’s work has had me deeply under its spell for the past three years.

Sundial (07.6), 2007, Mounted color Photographs.

In my opinion, Uta Barth is one of the most under-appreciated Photographers working today. I came across a copy of her retrospective The Long Now a few days before the pandemic shutdown and its poetry captivated me. With empty streets and empty rooms everywhere for the following months on end, I saw “Uta Barths” everywhere. Her spell has continued ever since. Artists who change the way I see the world are few and far between.

Installationv view of one section of ...from dusk to dawn, 2022, Mounted color Photographs with single-channel video monitor, includes an embedded video on one of these pieces that changes frames so subtly you may not see it change.

Finally having a chance to see her work in person @ Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Uta Barth presented one, large, new piece, …from dusk to dawn, 2022, in multiple sections that nearly wrapped around the entirety of the downstairs main gallery and a curated selection of “classic” Uta everywhere else in the gallery. The new piece showed one location of Richard Meier’s Getty Center, L.A., over the course of a year, as it changed with time. Being in California, we don’t see the variety of weather we might in some other place, but with Uta Barth it’s always about the light. 

Tauba Auerbach: Free Will @ Paula Cooper Gallery-

One of the rising stars of the Art world, Tauba Auerbach’s latest, her first NYC show since her acclaimed early mid-career retrospective S v Z @ SF MoMA, 2021, didn’t disappoint while offering the usual surprise.

Foam, 2023, Acrylic on dibond. One of a series of Paintings(!) of foam as seen through a microscope.

“The exhibition is an expression of curiosity about spontaneously emergent structure, tendency and habit, and their intersection with the notion of free will. The work brings together historical rendering techniques like pointillism and midtone drawing with microscopy, algorithmic image processing, off-loom weaving, spraying techniques and mathematical surface modeling,” per the Press Release.

Org, 2023, Glass, nylon coated steel cord, 2 x 80 1/2 x 41 3/8 in.

New were incredibly detailed “pointillistic” (her term) Paintings accompanied by tables of intricate objects and a number of equally interesting sculptural works in the adjoining gallery. Both the objects in the main gallery and these “sculptures” reminded me that Tauba Auerbach has her own publishing company, Diagonal Press, which produces fascinating and intricate books and multiples.

Spontaneous Lace, 2023, Kiln-formed glass in aluminum

It might be premature for me to say this, but Tauba Auerbach reminds me a bit of Frank Lloyd Wright, to me one of the great Artistic geniuses of all time. Ms. Auerbach is not an Architect, as far as I know, but her work reminds me of the brilliance of Wright’s “ancillary” designs for his buildings: his fabric designs, dishwear, furniture and rugs. Frank Lloyd Wright continually pursued “building the way nature built,” i.e. “organically,” as he called it. Much of Tauba Auerbach’s work is inspired by nature and carries forward some of its techniques, as seen here in Free Will. Barely in her 4th decade, the high esteem attached to her name is well-deserved in my view, and she is definitely an Artist to keep a close eye on.

Ruby LaToya Frazier @ Gladstone Gallery-

Steadily, Ruby LaToya Frazier has been building a remarkable oeuvre, equal parts documentary and Art, in her own, unique, way. Her latest show, Ruby LaToya Frazier at Gladstone consisted of one major work– More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-22, 2022 made up of 66 archival inkjet prints mounted on 18 stainless steel I.V. poles, which amounted to stations.

At each stop her Photographs were accompanied by personal statements from the subject that were every bit as riveting as Ms. Frazier’s work- no small feat. The show was a wonderful table-setter for Ms. Frazier’s mid-career retrospective set to open shortly at MoMA. An Artist & Activist who has focused so much of her work on groups and communities deserving wider attention it’s my hope the show will do just that for her work and career.

Nicole Eisenman Prince @ Print Center New York-

Beer Garden, 2012-7, Etching, acquatint, and drypoint with chine colle, A stunning 44 3/8 by 51 3/4 inches!

A fascinating and insightful retrospective of yet another side of her work: her seldom-seen prints. A wonderful presentation of 40 works, including new and rare works. A plethora of unique styles and compositions kept the show fresh and exciting, and I imagine would prove new even to those who know her Painting and Sculpture, which were seen to terrific effect in her New Museum survey in 2016, for which this show offered a marvelous, if delayed, addendum.

Machine Learning Kiss, 2018 Collagraph, 19 3⁄4 × 20 inches. *-unknown Photographer.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

NighthawkNYC.com Is 8! A Look Back…

This site is Free & Ad-Free! If you find this piece worthwhile, please donate via PayPal to support it & independent Art writing. You can also support it by buying Art & books! Details at the end. Thank you.

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

As the world continued to emerge from the horrors of the pandemic, it was business as usual for the galleries while the museums breathed a sigh of relief as they welcomed back the numbers they had seen pre-covid, though foreign tourists have not returned to NYC in their pre-pandemic numbers. That probably won’t last forever. There was a steady stream of very good and excellent shows throughout the year. In case you missed some, I’ll look at some of those that stood out for me and that I wrote about here, and everything else I covered, as I take a look back at Year #8 of NighthawkNYC.com: July 15, 2022- July 14. 2023…

Through the glass darkly to revisit Year 8…You’d need a telescope to see The Gulf Stream, center, from the show’s entrance, which announces it as the centerpiece for the entire exhibition. There were a lot of very good Paintings before, and after, you got to it.

Not Your Father’s Winslow Homer – Published on August 8, 2022. An expansive show big enough to show the American master’s broad accomplishment while delving into his themes- well-known and lesser-known, beginning with the Civil War and its aftermath. Incalculably influential during his life and after, Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents at The Met showed the relevance of his Art continues.

Louise Bourgeois’s Guarantee of Sanity – Published on August 25, 2022. One of the final shows mounted under Sheena Wagstaff as The Met’s Chair of Modern & Contemporary Art, Louise Bourgeois Paintings proved to be a worthy culmination to a very memorable tenure. For those, like me, only familiar with her Sculpture and Installations, her Paintings proved every bit as compelling. The question for me became how have they been so overlooked for so long?

William Klein: A Thousand Times YES – Published on September 21, 2022. One of the most influential Photographers of our time and one of the most endlessly curious, William Klein’s long career (1948-2013. 65 years!) as seen in ICP’s William Klein: YES was continually fascinating. In such a long career, landmarked with classic PhotoBooks, great and/or important Films1, and countless indelible images, what I love most is that he began as a Painter. His Paintings are rarely seen, so, in addition to EVERYTHING else he did that was on view, this was a wonderful chance to see some of them.

Hughie Lee-Smith, Self-Portrait, 1964, Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches.

Hughie Lee Smith: Leaving History Behind – Published on September 30,2022. The “history” of Art is written way too quickly in my view. It takes at least 100 years for the dust to settle and for those looking to really appreciate what’s been done. As seen at Karma’s Hughie Lee Smith, Hughie Lee Smith is a classic example of someone who was overlooked in the initial rush to judgment. As a result, I expect his name will heard more and more often as time goes on and more people see his work. As a result, his place in the 20th century Art history books will then be secured.

You’re a Painter. You’re 32. Your Yvonne and James II, 2021, Oil on canvas, was bought by, and is hanging in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, directly opposite Kerry James Marshall’s show-stopping Untitled (Studio), 2014 in their largest Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery, #915. If that’s not a “Wow,” what is?  June 18, 2022.- My caption as it appears in the piece.

Jordan Casteel: Surviving the Buzz – Published on October 20, 2022. It’s been a while since a new Contemporary Painter shot to the level of universal acclaim that Jordan Casteel has during the pandemic. Her New Museum show, Jordan Casteel: Within Reach took the Art world by storm. Heady times for any Artist, let alone one barely 30 at the time. Needless to say, the NYC Art world turned out in numbers to see what she would do next. I attended the opening of her first show since Within Reach, Jordan Casteel: In Bloom at Casey Kaplan, something I don’t often do, for a look-see myself.

Detail from Untitled (That’s the way we do it), 2011/2020 Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, seen at David Zwirner. Over the past 50 years Barbara Kruger’s style has become iconic to the point where now A LOT of people wish they could design like Barbara.

Barbara Kruger: Red & White and Read All Over – Published on November 1, 2022. Though her influence is, literally, everywhere you look these days, her Art is not shown all that often in NYC. After I got over the disappointment that the MoMA PS1 half of the show, a retrospective, had been canceled due to covid, I made do with the MoMA Atrium installation of a new site-specific work, and her concurrent David Zwirner show, spread over 3 of their galleries.

Diane Arbus At 99 – Published on November 10, 2022 – I’ve seen numerous Diane Arbus shows over the years going back to the incredible Diane Arbus: Revelations at The Met in 2005, one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen (DON’T MISS the Revelations Exhibition catalog! Either in The Met’s original edition or the recent Aperture reprint), but I hadn’t written about Ms. Arbus because pictures were not allowed to be taken in any of her shows. Finally, for the recreation of the legendary 1972 MoMA Retrospective at David Zwirner, they were. Many years of looking, and thinking about her work, had been simmering leading up to it.

Jane Dickson at the opening for her show at James Fuentes, April 7, 2022, while her work was also starring in the Whitney Biennial.

Jane Dickson: The Artist Laureate of Times Square – Published on December 8, 2022. Jane Dickson is something of an urban legend. By that I mean that she & her Art have been known for many years but it’s been a well-kept secret. Her latest show opened at James Fuentes while her work was starring in the Whitney Biennial showing that the word is finally getting out.

Endless compositional variety. Installation view of Jean-Michel Basquiat: Art and Objecthood @ Nahmad Contemporary.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now You See It, Now You Can’t – Published on December 22, 2022. One of the most amazing things about the Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s enduring popularity in 2022, for me, is that you can’t actually see his Art in person! Very, very few museums have him in their collections- still(!), and shows are infrequent. Curious to see if the real thing lived up to the hype, I’ve taken every chance I’ve had to see his Art in person going back a decade, now. In fact, I’ve now written about Mr. Basquiat more on NighthawkNYC than I have any other Artist! In 2022, I saw 2 more big shows of his work, Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Art and Objecthood, bringing my total to 9 shows seen. In this piece I ponder “where to” with the Art of Basquiat in 2022, and the future.

Jeanine Heveaux and Lisane Basquiat, Jean-Michel’s sisters, at the book release in NYC on April 12th.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, At 62 – Published on December 22, 2022. The biggest Basquiat show of the past decade, by the number of pieces on view, 200, Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure marked the first time his family, who inherited his estate, showed their collection. While it included a few major pieces, most of the work on view was not quite up to that level (in my opinion). That’s not all that surprising since the Artist sold so much of his work right after he created it. Still, it was an important show for anyone with an interest in Basquiat, and very well installed. In the lead up to the opening, I met both of Jean-Michel’s sisters.

Business, as usual. A local record store in action.

What’s Left Unsaid About Remixed Classic Albums – Published on January 19, 2022. Records labels have a license to print money when it comes to reissues. Bonus extra tracks and other goodies are added to the package to get buyers, including many who already own the record, to buy it (again)! But, what exactly are you getting? I think more attention needs to be paid to just WHO is doing the remixing of classic albums, and even why! The Artists signed off on the original versions, and as time goes on, fewer and fewer of them are left to sign off on remixes or reissues! And, there’s little they can do about it if they’ve signed the rights to the recording over to the record company. This is my look at all of this: our Musical cultural heritage is at stake!

Kerry James Marshall: Return of the Mastr – Published on February 9, 2023. Kerry James Marshall returned with his first solo show after the legendary Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, which I wrote about here, the Painting show of the decade among those I saw.

If you don’t think he’s an “Artist,” try imagining The Little Prince without Saint-Exupéry’s Art.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Artist – Published on March 21, 2023. Two shows at the Morgan Library made me wonder why no one even mentions Saint-Exupéry’s Art when discussing his timeless classic, The Little Prince. In honor of the 80th Anniversary of its publication, I look at just that.

Remember The Light: On The Passing of Wayne Shorter – Published on April 7, 2023. Wayne Shorter has been one of my Musical Gods for most of my life. I was lucky enough to see him perform quite a few times, and each was indelible. My thoughts on the passing of one of the great Musical geniuses of our time.

Rod Penner at his easel at work in the early stages of what would become Buy Pecans Here/San Saba, TX, in 2021 as seen in the book.

NoteWorthy Art Books: Rod Penner: Paintings, 1987-2022 – Published on April 7, 2023. 35 years coming, Rod Penner FINALLY gets a full-length book worthy of his Art. Not just that, it includes EVERYTHING he’s Painted. I took the first in-depth look at it anywhere!

Room in New York, 1932. Remember that song, “Eyes without a Face?” Well, this is “faces without eyes!”

Edward Hopper’s Impressions of New York – Published on May 5, 2023. I visited the Painting show of Year 8, Edward Hopper’s New York. at the Whitney Museum, fourteen times. As a result, it took three pieces, written over 9 months, to cover. Part 1 focuses on my problems with Edward Hopper’s Art being termed “realism.” I don’t see it that way. If the faces in Room in New York, above, don’t have eyes, how “real” can they be?

Early Sunday Morning, 1930. A block in my neighborhood 93 years ago. I now see it as an ominous warning.

Edward Hopper: The Last Traditionalist Faces Change – Published on June 5, 2023. Part 2 focuses on what I see when I look at Hopper now after seeing Edward Hopper’s New York.

Night Shadows, 1921, Etching. One of the first pieces by Hopper to speak to me. Looking at it, I wonder- who is the lonelier? The man walking on the street, or the observer? A similar experience is to be had with Nighthawks.
I chose this piece because it seems to me there are shadows encroaching on the Art of Edward Hopper in 2022-23. Seen at Edward Hopper’s New York.

Edward Hopper At The Whitney: Troubling Choices – Published on June 8, 2023. My 3-part Edward Hopper series concludes with a look at some troubling decisions the Whitney has made regarding the Art of Edward Hopper and the Josephine Hopper Bequest, the most extraordinary gift an American Painter has yet made to an American museum.

Performing Scarlatti…in a motorcycle jacket on the harpsichord. And, performing his 555 Sonatas(!) extraordinarily, with HIV.

Scott Ross: The Modern Ancient – Published on June 7, 2023. My look at the late Scott Ross, a true renaissance man and individualist, who’s best known for his marvelous recordings of Baroque Music…on the harpsichord, no less.

Filled with a lifetime’s fruits of observations, insights, and revelations. No Art lover should be without it, in my humble opinion.

Kenn Sava’s Desert Island Art Books – Published on July 12, 2023. After Months of agonizing over the final cuts, here they are! The Art books that have held up for me, while continuing to inform & inspire, that I can’t live without.

Counting this piece, I wrote TWENTY-ONE full-length pieces in Year 8! My Thanks to everyone who has read one, or more, of them, and my special thanks to all those who have book Art, books and Music from my collection, which I am selling off to help keep this site going. Your support is VERY appreciated, and still needed!

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

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  1. imdb lists him as the Director of 24! ↩

Jane Dickson: The Artist Laureate of Times Square

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

“They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there’s always magic in the air.”*

Perhaps the most “famous” of the Times Square porn theater signs, the infamous Peepland sign stood on 7th Avenue (i.e. Broadway), between 47th & 48th Streets. Big Peep Eye, 2021, Oil stick on linen, 62 x 76 inches. Seen at Jane Dickson: 99c Dreams at James Fuentes, April 7, 2022.

It takes a poet to turn the lurid den of iniquity that was Times Square in the 1980s into Art. Jane Dickson has spent a good part of her career doing just that. Now, times have changed. Visitors to the place today have to look long and hard to get a sense of what it was like 30 or 40 years ago. But, has it been change for the “better?” Earlier this year I asked Jane Dickson which she liked better- the “new” Times Square, or the “old?”

“They’re equally bad,” she replied without even taking a moment to think about it.

Her answer may surprise many who don’t live here, but New Yorkers know and largely agree. I’ve lived through both, so I wanted to get her take on it since she actually lived in the middle of it in it’s most notorious heyday, while I was always ensconced at least a mile away- close enough to walk there easily, passing through it often enough, and leave when I wanted. Meanwhile she stayed in her loft on 8th Avenue near 43rd Street, right in the heart of all of it, watching it all go down from her window, or on the street.

99c Dreams Felt, 2022, Acrylic on felt, 62 x 84 inches. The titular piece from her spring, 2022 James Fuentes solo show.

The place had a look all its own. While you were looking, keeping your eyes open in “old” Times Square, best known to most from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, was key to surviving it. Still, I was mugged once on “the Deuce” as 42nd Street was called. Keeping your eyes open in “new” Times Square is also key to surviving it, for different reasons. Now, you’re not as likely to get mugged as you are to get hit by a bike. Looking at the Art of Jane Dickson, it seems that she never closes her eyes. Her work is full of fleeting moments that may not be the “decisive moments” Henri Cartier-Bresson immortalized. They’re more like “What just happened?” moments, where the pitch black night is “stabbed by the flash of a neon light,” as Paul Simon wrote in “The Sound of Silence.”

Big Terror, 2020, Acrylic on linen. What appears to be the strip of theaters on West 42nd Street between 7th & 8th Avenues back in the day. All the marquees are gone now.

While Taxi Driver definitely captured the look and feel of the place, Travis Bickle traveled mostly by car. You can’t really get the sense of what the place was like unless you were walking it. And walking it was risky, as I said. Times Square back in the day was seedy and dirty- in most of the definitions of that word in standard usage, both of those terms ran neck and neck with each other on a daily basis to see which one would win.

Reader Advisor, 2021, Oil stick on linen, 22 x 32 inches.

It wound up a toss up, at least in my book.

Halloween Wigs, 2021, Oil stick on linen, 32 x 22 inches.

“They say the women treat you right on Broadway
But looking at them just gives me the blues
‘Cause how you gonna make some time
When all you got is one thin dime
And one thin dime won’t even shine your shoes”*

What may, or may not be, the same place, seen on 8th Avenue & West 35th Street, November 22, 2022.

So, it’s a very strange thing to say that “cleaning up,” or “disneyfying” Times Square, in honor of its most famous new anchor tenant1, wasn’t an improvement. But, it wasn’t. Times Square went from being the City’s capital of porn to being the City’s capital of tacky chain commerce porn. For my part, I’m still waiting for signs of life IN new Times Square. Though, yes, there are some good shows, like this one, on the side streets off the actual Square. 

Traffic Cop Port Authority, 2020, Oil stick on linen, 34 x 20 inches. If you’re coming to NYC, crossing the street is, perhaps, THE most dangerous thing you’ll have to do. It’s not only cars, trucks, busses. Now the bigger problem are all the bikes, e-bikes, scooters, motorcycles that obey no laws or rules that are deadly. A man was hit by a bike on my corner in August. He died of his injuries. The cyclist got up and left. I’ve spoken to many cops about this problem. They’re at just as much risk! Right now, no one cares. My advice? Have eyes installed in the back of your head before you get here, and use them!

All the while, Jane Dickson has built a considerable career out of observing life in old Times Square. Her Paintings, Photos, Mosaics, Videos, works on paper, et al, show the Times Square where life happens in the living definition of a “New York Minute”- a nano-second.

Fascination Sign 1, 2020

“I chose to be a witness to my time, not to document its grand moments but to capture the small telling ones, the overlooked everyday things that define a time and place,” she said.

Her work features two recurring elements- the deepest black of the dead of night, punctuated by the glow of lightbulbs, neon tubes, or both, rendered in paint on such surfaces as Astroturf, felt, sandpaper, or carpet. A number of her subjects are faceless or indistinct. They literally could be anyone. While many others have created work in Times Square, (including Richard Estes, who has made some stunning Urban Landscapes there), no other Artist or Photographer has devoted more than 50% of their body of work to it.

Late Show Cop, 2020, 32 x 22 inches, left, and Open, 2021, 34 x 24 inches, right. Both Oil stick on linen.

Little by little, Ms. Dickson is starting to get the recognition she deserves.  In 2007, her Mosaics, The Revelers, depicting Times Square New Year’s Eve celebrants, were installed in the IRT 42nd Street/Times Square Subway Station- permanently.

You’ve made your mark when your Art is rendered in the permanence of mosaics, publicly. Jane Dickson’s The Revelers partially seen here installed in the NYC Subway, fittingly right under Times Square where the titular celebrants gather each year on New Year’s Eve to…revel. Seen on July 2, 2022, when most New Yorkers look like they could use some revelry.

I’ve lauded MTA Arts previously, and once again, their selection of this Artist for this location is spot on. The Revelers is installed right under the place where the event takes place each year- New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Walking through the long corridor the piece is installed in on a summer day, I was stopped by a number of the figures.

Yes, the “confetti” around the figures is recreated in glass mosaic and embedded into the tiles surrounding the figures.

The real thing. Leftover confetti from the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square on West 42nd Street at 7th Avenue directly beneath where the Ball was dropped. January 4, 2022.

Many of them ARE reveling. Some are hugging and kissing. Many carry or play horns. Joy & happiness abounds. Not things you see every day in the Subway. I tried to put myself in the place of those people and remember what they were feeling. New Year’s Eve isn’t a big deal to me. I haven’t celebrated any holiday in years. The pandemic sealed that. Still, it is a good thing to see here, it’s good to have a reminder of happiness & joy, which many will see almost every single day on their commute.

Installation view.

As I think about the piece, having made a few trips just to see it, I’m struck that it provides the only vestige of the feeling the holidays bring for some all year long, anywhere in the City.

Installation view of Jane Dickson in the 2022 Whitney Biennial, seen on March 31, 2022.

The first large monograph on her work, the stunning Jane Dickson in Times Square, was released in late 2018. This year, to my eyes (along with Matt Connors who I wrote about here), she was a “star” of this year’s Whitney Biennial. Concurrent with the Biennial, Ms. Dickson also showed new work in a solo show Jane Dickson: 99c Dreams at James Fuentes from April 7th through May 8th in Soho. Both shows reveal she has lost none of her power, and her eyes remain wide open.

Living the dream…Jane Dickson at the opening of Jane Dickson: 99c Dreams at James Fuentes, April 7, 2022, while her work was also starring across town in The Whitney Biennial.

“They say I won’t last too long on Broadway
I’ll catch a Greyhound bus for home, they all say
But they’re dead wrong, I know they are
‘Cause I can play this here guitar
And I won’t quit ’til I’m a star on Broadway”*

Jane Dickson is yet another example of a wonderful Artist who has been making very good work for a long time (over 4 decades) finally beginning to get the recognition her work deserves. She captured the feel and the experience of Times Square (and beyond) as  no one else has. In doing so, she’s done something remarkable: she not only survived it, she created something lasting out of it all.

For me, Jane Dickson is the “Artist Laureate of Times Square,” by definition 3 of this definition of “poet laureate” from the American Heritage Dictionary:

poet laureate
noun
  1. A poet appointed for life by a British monarch as a member of the royal household and expected to write poems celebrating occasions of national importance and honoring the royal family.
  2. A poet appointed to a similar honorary position or honored for artistic excellence.
  3. A poet acclaimed as the most excellent or most representative of a locality or group2. <–Bingo.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “On Broadway,” by Mann, Weill, Lieber & Stoller as performed by George Benson in 1978. 

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  1. Are they still there? Like most New Yorkers, when I find myself in Times Square, I don’t stick around long enough to see the sites, so I don’t even know. ↩
  2. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition. ↩

Diane Arbus At 99

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Among Modern & Contemporary Photographers, perhaps no one’s Portraits have been discussed more than Diane Arbus’s, the late Photographer who would have turned 99 this past March 23rd. Much of the printed discourse devoted to discussing her oeuvre over the past 50 or so years has been collected in the new, 500-page tome, Diane Arbus Documents. Paging through it reveals that there has never been a consensus on her work. Opinions range from here to there and back again. Yet even with all of those words expended on them (with countless more to follow no doubt, starting right here) they remain deeply mysterious. (A slightly smaller number of words have been expended discussing her life, which also leaves the woman in the center of them mysterious.) Seeking “the answer,” myself, for over 25 years, I put the book down. As always, my answer if there is one, is not to be found in the opinions of others. My answer is only to be found in her Art. 

The Human Pincushion, Louis Ciervo, in his silk shirt, Hagerstown, Md. 1961, Printed by Diane Arbus 1966-1967.

Diane Arbus is one of the few Photographers, along with Robert Frank and Araki, I became interested in in the 1990s while I was exclusively a “Painting guy,” before and after my career as a musician/producer, then Music writer. My interest solidified when I saw the monumental Diane Arbus: Revelations at The Met in 20051, one of the truly great shows I’ve ever seen. The recent show, .cataclysm. The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited, is the 5th Diane Arbus solo show I’ve seen-

-Diane Arbus: Revelations, The Met, 2005
-diane arbus: in the beginning, The Met Breuer 2016
-Diane Arbus: In the Park, Levy Gorvy, 2017
-Diane Arbus: Untitled, David Zwirner, 2018
-.cataclysm. The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited, David Zwirner, 2022

A family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. 1968, Printed by Diane Arbus 1970-1971

So far, I have only written about her briefly, when I listed in the beginning as a NoteWorthy Show for October, 2016, here. I did, however, spend months working on a piece on Untitled, which I saw almost a dozen times. Beyond the other-worldly work, I was fascinated in comparing Diane Arbus’s lifetime Prints (i.e. those she Printed herself) with those issued after her passing by her estate (which have all been Printed by Neil Selkirk). I finally abandoned it primarily because Photographs were not allowed to be taken in it, or any of her shows. Up to now. Another reason is that I felt my thoughts on her work itself had still not congealed. The Untitled show was a wonderful chance to see her unique and powerful late series of the same name, shot in a center for the mentally disabled in Vineland, New Jersey, complete, but it didn’t give me the insights I longed for into her whole body of work, possibly because it is so singular. The wonderful in the beginning consisted exclusively of early work, again an outlier to the main body of her work between those two.

I missed the 1972 Arbus MoMA Retrospective. So, seeing .cataclysm, a “recreation” of it, was an unheard of second chance to see an important show. Being that it includes a good cross section of her mature work, originally selected by legendary MoMA Photography curator John Szarkowski, things FINALLY began to come together. 

Every time I’ve stood on the precipice of a Diane Arbus show, I’ve been greeted by a “No Photographs” sign. Until now.

As I walked through it themes recurred across time and place. However, the first thing that must be said is that Diane Arbus did not Photograph “freaks,” an offensive term, as some have called her subjects.

Albino sword swallower at a carnival, Md. 1970. Not one, but two swords.

She liked show people as subjects, which I feel is revealing, and took an interest in them beyond the stage.

Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th Street, N.Y.C. 1963, There is so much to this Photograph, and so much going on, I find it one of the most captivating of Diane Arbus’s indoor Portraits. There is the layer of these performers as performers, who came to America with a circus in 19232 Here, we see behind the curtain and I for one just can’t stop trying to read each person’s expression, and what this image may say about their relationships.

She even gained access to a number of them at home, which provided another duality- the performer previously seen in performing guise removed from the stage and shown in his or her “real life” environment. Some of them, and her other subjects, were also what we now call GLBTQIA+. In Photographing them, she was ahead of her time, anticipating the work of Nan Goldin, Zanele Muholi, and others.

Girl with a cigar, Washington Square Park, NYC, 1965. “A blond lesbian smoking a cigar had sultry star magnetism…3.” I’m struck by the fact that at the exact moment this Photo was taken, Edward Hopper was living a few hundred feet away at 3 Washington Square Park. He & his wife frequented the Park. Too bad his path, apparently, never crossed Ms. Arbus’s.

Though she did some Street Photography, capturing the unsuspecting at random, in her most enduring work, her Portraits, the compositions are more direct. Many of these subjects are people she spent some time with, and are done with their cooperation, or at least their awareness. Though examples of the full range of her non-commercial work are included in .cataclysm, it is, again, her Portraits that stand apart. This may be because in any number of them, the Artist is directly in front of her subject pointing her camera directly at him or her in what results in one of the most powerful one on one confrontations in the history of Photography. In a number of her Portraits, it looks like Ms. Arbus was extremely close to the subject’s face, something rarely seen today.

Blonde girl with shiny lipstick, N.Y.C. 1967

As Diane wrote her friend Carlotta Marshall, “The pictures are getting bigger. Some are life-size or more4.” Germaine Greer, who was Photographed by Diane Arbus in April, 1971, three months before her suicide, recalled the experience-

“She set up no lights, just pulled out her Rolleiflex, which was half as big as she was, checked the aperture and the exposure, and tested the flash. Then she asked me to lie on the bed, flat on my back on the shabby counterpane.

I did as I was told. Clutching the camera she climbed on to the bed and straddled me, moving up until she was kneeling with a knee on both sides of my chest. She held the Rolleiflex at waist height with the lens right in my face. She bent her head to look through the viewfinder on top of the camera, and waited. In her viewfnder I must have looked like a guppy or like one of the unfortunate babies into whose faces Arbus used to poke her lens so that their snotty tear stained features filled her picture frame (eg, A Child Crying, NJ, 1967), I knew that at that distance anybody’s face would have more pores than features. I was wearing no make up and hadn’t even had time to wash my face or comb my hair.

Pinned on the bed by her small body with the big camera in my face, I felt my claustrophobia kick in; my heart-rate accelerated and I began to wheeze. I understood that as soon as I exhibited any signs of distress, she would have her picture5.”

Germaine Greer from the book Diane Arbus: Magazine Work, P.151. (Not included in .cataclysm.)

Ms. Greer reports that “No permission for the reproduction of what is undeniably a bad picture was ever requested6.” It has subsequently seen as Feminist in Hotel Room. In Diane Arbus: Magazine Work, it is listed as “Unpublished, New Woman, 1970.” (Note- The Guardian article states twice that Ms. Greer posed for Diane in April, 1971. The Photographer committed suicide on July 26, 1971.)

This reminds me of what Edward Hopper means when he asserted that “An artist expresses nothing so much as his own personality in art7.” Regardless of what you think of her results, in many cases they can be a bit painful to look at. It’s hard for me to look at Ms. Greer’s Portrait and not see Diane Arbus in it.

A woman in a bird mask, N.Y.C. 1967. One, perhaps the most exotic, of many Portraits of a masked man or woman in the show.

In studying her Portraits of performers, at work and at home, and then moving on to the other Portraits nearby, I was struck by a commonality- a mask. A performer is one who dons another persona when they work. Diane Arbus shot a number of them either back stage or demonstrating their “act.” Then, she shows some of them at home, as in Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th Street, N.Y.C. 1963, seen earlier.

Transvestite at a drag ball, N.Y.C. 1970.

We see the same person in two different contexts. Having seen them in the mask of performance, are they also “performing” at home? Are we seeing behind the stage mask? Showing them in two contexts is adding layers to what the viewer must peel through.

For me, perhaps no Diane Arbus Portrait sums this up than the one she took of my late friend Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Stormé De Larverie, the Lady Who Appears to be a Gentleman, 1961. I look at it and wonder how many layers there are to it. As someone who bent the lines of gender fluidly throughout her life, this Portrait can be seen as Stormé in her performing guise (multiple layers already), yet, it’s taken outdoors, and not on stage (or at home), adding even more layers. Then, the are all the layers of the woman, herself, who even in her late years, when our paths crossed, never lost her mystery.

Miss Stormé De Larverie, the Lady Who Appears to be a Gentleman, 1961, 45 years before I would meet her. Not included in .cataclysm. Stormé told me Diane had taken her picture. Seen here in 2015, in a darkened gallery, this was the first time I saw it.

Subsequent history would add even more layers. 8 years after Arbus, on June 28, 1969, Stormé may have been the one who started the Stonewall Uprising, the event that is widely seen as the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement. She told me she was, and I believe her. (She also told me Diane Arbus had Photographed her, but it wouldn’t be until after she passed that I saw her Portrait). She spoke emphatically against the term “riot” being used in referring to Stonewall! “The Stonewall Uprising” is what she called it. History, take note! Photographing her in the peace and calm of Central Park shows a side of Stormé her friends knew. However, Stormé was a VERY strong person- both in her inner fortitude and her physical presence and strength. She was lightning quick to speak up. After a career as a performer and M.C., she often worked as bar security later in her life. In fact, the first time I encountered her, she denied me entrance to one because I was not a lesbian though the female I was with was. I wasn’t about to argue with her! A decade later we met again and became friends. Many a late night I escorted her home to the Hotel Chelsea during the legendary Stanley Bard-era. In fact, Mr. Bard gave me his phone number and told me to call him anytime Stormé had a problem. More than once I called him at 4am. He always picked up. Stanley was one of the people who made Chelsea the legendary neighborhood Patti Smith immortalized in Just Kids.

Lady at a masked ball with two roses on her dress, N.Y.C. 1967

Beyond the performers, a number of her other Photographs show people wearing actual masks. Elsewhere, we see someone dressed in the face they show the world, “performing with a mask on” in a different way, on the public stage of life, which may or may not reflect who they really are. In all of these, the common denominator is a kind of mask- literal or figurative. In a number of instances across all of these “types” Diane Arbus captures her subject at the moment when the viewer can see behind the mask. It seems to me that Ms. Arbus, who herself wore many “masks” in public, according to Arthur Lubow’s biography, strived to see under other people’s masks.

Blonde female impersonator with a beauty mark in mirror, N.Y.C. 1958, Printed by Diane Arbus between 1958-1960. For me, this is an historic and revolutionary image- for so many reasons and in so many ways, The composition astounds me. The Printing adds incalculably to the effect.

In  this glimpse of someone behind the mask, of whatever kind, something IS revealed for a split second. But what? Is it an inkling of who they “really are?” Or…? We have no way of “knowing” for sure. It’s left to every viewer to read into it as they will.

 

Installation view.

Then, so armed with a glimmer of “knowledge” the rest of the puzzle looms. These images, like her Portrait of Stormé, are what I call an “Arbus onion,” with as many layers for the viewer to unravel as both women who created it had. The mirror in Blonde female impersonator with a beauty mark in mirror, N.Y.C. 1958 adds even MORE layers to all the others for the viewer to unravel. 

And this, it appears to me, is the crux of Diane Arbus’s Art. When one layer is finally peeled off, there’s another one under it. The “world” of her Art is an onion- one layer shows at a time, but there are many, many more underneath.

Underneath ALL of it, I’m left to wonder- “What’s left? The Artist, herself?”

“Happiness perplexed her.”

Untitled (11) 1970-71

“In the summer of 1969, she traveled to (a center for the mentally disabled in Vineland) New Jersey as often as she could to photograph the handicapped. Even before her first visit, she knew that she wanted to portray “idiots, imbeciles and morons (morons are the smartest of the three), especially the cheerful ones.” She wasn’t seeking out suffering, but rather joy in the face of terrible adversity. By artistic standards, a photograph of a severely disabled person with a smiling face would usually be more moving and mysterious than a conventional documentation of the afflicted and downtrodden. But her motives were not entirely aesthetic. As when driving through the hardscrabble backcountry of Florida, she questioned how people with so little could be this happy. Happiness perplexed her.

Untitled (7) 1970-71. Other-worldly. The power, and yes beauty, of Diane Arbus’s Untitled series has captivated me since I discovered them in Diane Arbus: Revelations at The Met in 2005. For me, Untitled is among the very few, if not the only, Photographic series I could speak of in the same sentence as Goya’s timeless Prints, including Los Caprichos, in therms of their mystery, power and compositional brilliance.

In the enervating summer heat, her mentally disabled subjects—whom she found “the strangest combination of grownup and child”—provided solace. Her pictures of their parties and processions convey a sentiment of acceptance and contentment. These people had stopped fighting fate. They had surrendered any pretense of control. And they seemed happy. Not all of them, of course. Some were angry or distraught. But those were not the ones she usually chose as subjects8.”

While making these Photographs which would become her Untitled series, Diane told a friend, “that one of the women, aboard a bus, touched her with an affectionate little hand. The exchange moved and depressed her. She loved these people, but they could lend her no strength9.” How utterly revealing. How utterly crushing.

November, 2022 marks the 6 year anniversary of my “deep dive” into Modern & Contemporary Photography. As time has gone on, I’ve found that most Photography doesn’t hold up to repeat looking like Painting, Drawing, or Sculpture, at least for me. Diane Arbus’s does.  

*- This piece is dedicated to Stormé DeLarverie. The Soundtrack for this piece is “Andryogny” by Garbage featuring Shirley Manson, an icon in my book, from their album Garbage 2.0. In it, Ms. Manson dons an outfit at one point hauntingly similar to those worn by Stormé in her publicity photos (a coincidence?). It’s seen here in its official Music video-

Also- I’m pleased to announce I’m curating a selection of Art, ArtBooks & PhotoBooks for sale! All items are from my collection or selected by me in my travels through the Art world. The complete selection of over 370 items is here.

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If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below.
Thank you, Kenn.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. A show that was only up from March 8 through May 30th, 2005, a pretty short run. ↩
  2. Arthur Lubow, Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer, P.550 ↩
  3. Ibid, P.366 ↩
  4. Diane Arbus: Revelations Exhibition Catalog, P. 185 ↩
  5. Germaine Greer, “Wrestling with Diane Arbus,” The Guardian, October 7, 2005, reprinted in Diane Arbus Documents ↩
  6. Ibid ↩
  7. Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, P.42 ↩
  8. Excerpt from Lubow, Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer, P.418. ↩
  9. Ibid, P.422 ↩

Barbara Kruger: Red & White And Read All Over

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

Shows seen: Barbara Kruger @ 3 David Zwirner West 19th Street Galleries &
Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. @ The Museum of Modern Art

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Whitney Biennial, the first time Barbara Kruger’s work was shown to the public1.

Over the past 50 years Barbara Kruger’s style has become iconic to the point where now A LOT of people either wish they could design like Barbara. Detail from Untitled (That’s the way we do it), 2011/2020 Digital print on vinyl wallpaper, seen at David Zwirner, July 12, 2022.

A lot of others simply rip off her style, including countless advertisers, most notoriously, possibly Supreme, according to StockX. This is NOT by Barbara Kruger. NYC Subway, August 28, 2022.

49 years later, Barbara Kruger is one of the most powerful voices in Art. Moreover, she is an Artist who is a powerful voice in the world beyond Art.

Detail of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., which fills the 5 stories of MoMA’s Atrium. September 2, 2022.

Year 49 brings two formidable shows of new Barbara Kruger pieces and new versions of older work to NYC- one, Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. fills the MoMA Atrium with the new site-specific titular work this fall/winter. Barbara Kruger, a show of new versions of classic work, filled 3 of David Zwirner’s West 19th Street galleries this summer. Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. was a traveling retrospective in its prior stops at LACMA and the Art Institute of Chicago. Sadly, the retrospective segment of the show, announced to be mounted at MoMA PS1 (site of a 1980 BK solo show) was cancelled due to pandemic scheduling issues2. Darn! New Yorkers will have to make due with the main building’s Atrium and the show’s excellent catalog, which includes 40 of the 60 pieces we could have/would have seen. 

Untitled, 1989, Public Art Fund installation, West 41st Street & 8th Avenue, April 3, 2001. A huge office building now occupies this space. Good luck cleaning it!

In spite of missing the retrospective part of Thinking of You. , New Yorkers have, probably, seen more of Ms. Kruger’s work over time than anyone, being she began here and has maintained a place here all along. While we missed another look-see at the depth of her work and the historical overview the retrospective provides, the impressive (and sad) thing about Ms. Kruger’s oeuvre is that her themes haven’t changed over these past 50 years. The retrospective would have shown her dedication to addressing these issues over time, and for all this time. 

“Issues about power, value, unfortunately do not grow old,” she told Art21.

Blind Idealism Is…, Paint on wall, the High Line Mural for 2016-17, seen February 5, 2017. An adaptation of a quote from Frantz Fanon. That’s “DEADLY” behind the trees, which I guess cannot be moved. Installed in summer, 2016, it eerily foreshadowed what was to come. Seen on February 5, 2017.

Barbara Kruger was born in Newark in early 1945 to a working class family. Her dad was a chemical technician, her mom a legal secretary3. After 1 year at Syracuse U, she took some classes at the Parsons School of Design with graphic designer/art director Marvin Israel and legendary Photographer Diane Arbus4. Though she never earned a degree, she credits her studies with Arbus & Israel with influencing her, and it was through her connection with Mr. Israel that she began her professional life at Condé Nast in the design department of Mademoiselle Magazine5. She became chief designer at 22,  before becoming a freelance picture editor and designer for magazines and books, including at stint at the Aperture Foundation.

“You know, it always gets me when people say I worked in advertising. I never did. I never had that experience of selling a particular product. When you work in magazines, it’s a serial process, it’s about seriality- and so is photography. Or Painting,” Barbara Kruger, Interview Magazine, 2013.

Instead, Barbara Kruger uses advertising’s methods and means including billboards, posters, pieces mounted on buildings, and short videos, while also being regularly featured in public spaces of all kinds all around the world. In her work, she lays bear the methods advertisers uses to manipulate viewers (as does Sara Cwynar more recently). The major difference is in her work Barbara Kruger isn’t “selling” anything. She wants her viewers to think.

Barbara Kruger’s David Zwirner show featured a number of older works that the Artist has reincarnated as short videos. In I Shop Therefore I Am, the work comes together on the screen as a jigsaw puzzle gradually falling into place. Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987/2019 Single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 57 sec. David Zwirner, July 12, 2022.

After forming “I shop there fore I am,”, the “I Shop” is replaced with other words making new phrases.

“These are just ideas in the air and questions that we ask sometimes- and questions that we don’t ask but should ask.” she told Art21.

In the 1970s, she began showing her work, then took a year off late in the decade to consider what she was doing and what she wanted to do with her Art. Now, her 1970s work has all but disappeared- I can find no trace of it anywhere. In the 2010 Rizzoli Barbara Kruger monograph, the largest and most comprehensive book on her work so far, the earliest pieces included date from the 1980s. During her break, her time with the Artists Meeting for Social Change proved critical in helping her focus her ideas, which she combined with her graphic design expertise to develop the unique text & image style that has become instantly identifiable as hers. In the 1980s, a steady string of gallery shows began, continuing right up to this summer with Barbara Kruger, her first show with David Zwirner. The museums came on board with the 1999-2000 MoCA, Los Angeles, mid-career retrospective. Her work has since been on view in numerous museums around the world (with the text in her work in the local language), up to Thinking of You I Mean Me I Mean Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. now at MoMA after prior stops at the Art Institute of Chicago (Sept, 2021- Jan, 2022) and LACMA (March – July, 2022). Such has been the demand for her work, her Zwirner CV runs 31 pages.

Partial installation view of one of the three Zwirner galleries, July 12, 2022.

The images that appear in her work are often sourced from mid-century catalogs6. But, Barbara Kruger has issues with Photography- particularly Street Photography and Photo-Journalism.

“There can be an abusive power to photography,” she said7.

Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., MoMA Atrium, September 2, 2022. It won’t, but I think it should stay right here permanently. In the now 16 years this space has been here, this, and Adam Pendleton’s recent piece, are the best use of almost all of it I have seen. Unlike much of her earlier work, there is no Photography in this piece.

Her signature red on white pieces, which suddenly became black on white pieces, often pose tough questions that put the viewer on the spot. “You talking to me?,” as DeNiro said. Christopher Bolen walked readers through what happens next in Interview Magazine-

“The direct address is disarmingly direct. Certainly, the “you” implicates the reader—a shopper, a consumer, a part of the capitalist enterprise, guilty of impulsive buying habits. But the “you” is also a general composite—that annoying, far more guilty everyperson-and the reader sides with the artist in condemning this sector of the population who is greedy, wasteful, and irresponsible. So already—and almost always in a graphic Kruger text piece—a haunting repositioning occurs in the mind of the viewer: judged and also judging; agreeing with the charges even as she or he is charging others.” Christopher Bolen, Interview Magazine, 2013. 

The view of MoMA’s Atrium from the 5th floor, September 2, 2022.

If anything, her newer black on white style without Photographs is even more direct. There is nothing to distract the viewer from her text. Not even color.

Detail of Untitled (No Comment), 2020, Three-channel video installation, sound, 9:25 min. As she has used found Photography, Barbara Kruger may also use texts from others. “Those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” is a quote from Voltaire. At David Zwirner, July 12, 2022.

“I want my work to create commentary,” the Artist told Art 21.

In doing so, she turns the methods of advertising on their heads, “to teach us how to the two languages of persuasion, photographs, and words, influence us. Believing that no message is neutral, Kruger would have us be critical interpreters, rather than passive consumers, of the media8.” In doing so, she allows the viewer to see how advertising works- how it manipulates and persuades, while helping the viewer understand the power of the media.

David Zwirner, June 30, 2022

At David Zwirner, some of the Artist’s most well-known pieces, including Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground), 1989/2019, have been given new life as single channel videos on LCD panels. Originally created to support women’s reproductive rights for the 1989 Women’s March on Washington, it’s just one example of the unfortunate timelessness of Barbara Kruger’s work. Your body is a battleground is already 33 years old. I shop therefore I am, is 35 years old.

Detail of Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You., MoMA Atrium, September 2, 2022.

As she prepares to enter the second half-century of her work, she finds herself in a world that is substantially more open to her voice, and that of female Artists, than it was when she began to show her work in the early 1970s. Barbara Kruger has been a substantial catalyst of that change. I’m not sure she’s gotten enough credit for it. Of course, there is still much to be done. Though her methods have evolved over time, the effect she’s had, already, is incalculable- in so many ways. Purely as Art, 50 years on, her work has more than held its own.

Detail of Untitled (That’s the way we do it), 2011/2020 Digital print on vinyl wallpaper at David Zwirner, July 12, 2022.

Based on all of this, leaving aside how her work will be viewed aesthetically, it seems to me that 100 years hence, her work will remain every bit as relevant as it is right now.

For better. Or for worse.

Untitled (Remember me), 1988/2020 Single-channel video on LED panel, sound, 23 sec. David Zwirner Gallery, June 30, 2022.

*- Soundtrack for this piece is “Color Synesthesia,” by Nik Bates, with the classic line, “And without Barbara Kruger, there would be no Supreme,” from his album Goodbye, San Diego, 2010.

Also- I’m pleased to announce I’m curating a selection of Art, ArtBooks & PhotoBooks for sale! All items are from my collection or selected by me in my travels through the Art world. The complete selection of over 370 items is here.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 7 years, during which over 275 full length pieces have been published!
If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to keep it online & ad-free below.
Thank you, Kenn.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
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  1. Barbara Kruger, Rizzoli, 2010, p.305 ↩
  2. This isn’t mentioned until the next to last page of the exhibition catalog’s text. ↩
  3. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kruger-barbara ↩
  4. A life learner, the Artist has gone on to teach at a number of schools since her short period of formal study, herself. She has been a professor at UCLA since 2005. ↩
  5. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/barbara-kruger ↩
  6. Thinking of You exhibition catalog, P.153. ↩
  7. Interview Magazine, 2013 ↩
  8. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kruger-barbara ↩

William Klein- A Thousand Times YES

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Show Seen- William Klein: YES @ ICP

William Klein, who passed away at 94 on September 10th, was a big name for so long, creating legendary and hugely influential PhotoBooks, Films, Fashion Photography, Paintings, Photograms, and on and on, that it seemed to me he was somewhat taken for granted over what turned out to be the last decade of his life. Case in point- I can’t remember the last big William Klein show in NYC. So, the International Center of Photography’s career retrospective, William Klein: YES, June 3rd to September 15th, was not to be missed. Due to circumstances out of my control (i.e. my new life), I managed to see it on its closing night, day 5 after the Artist passed.

Untitled (Blurred White Squares on Black and Orange Gel Sheet), c. 1952, Gelatin silver print with transparent orange filter, top, and Untitled (White and Yellow Moving Lines), c. 1952, Gelatin silver print with yellow paint.

Paintings, Collage, Photograms, bodies of b&w Street Photographs in NYC, Paris, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo, Fashion Photography, Film, color Photography, Painted contact sheets filled both gallery floors of the International Center of Photography’s fairly new Essex Street building. The show felt like it was the work of 6 or 7 Artists. Perhaps that’s why they named the show William Klein: YES Photographs, Paintings, Films, 1948-2013- as a reminder that ALL of this sprang from one unique Artist.

The earliest works on view. Untitled (Gymnasts), c. 1949, Untitled (Still life, lamp, and vase), c. 1949, Oil on wood- the others are all oil on canvas, Untitled (Gymnasts), c. 1949, and Untitled c. 1952, from left to right.

After studies with Fernand Léger, William Klein temporarily ignored his advice to get into Photography, Film and publishing, instead embarking on a career as an Abstract Painter during the height of the first wave of Abstract Expressionists. He managed to carve out a style that had elements of Mondrian but also showed an affinity for multi-layered compositions that would also be seen in his later Photography. It’s interesting that the two Gymnast Paintings, above, feature monochrome figures, also presaging his b&w Street Photography.

In 1952, an architect saw William Klein’s Paintings and asked him to adapt them to a room divider made of rotating panels. While Photographing the panels, Klein’s wife spun them. Fascinated with the effect, hep down his camera,  went into the darkroom and began experimenting with Photograms, like Man Ray before him, holding cards with cut out shapes over photo paper during long exposures.

While Photographing a piece he’d been asked to paint, William Klein was inspired to put his camera down and experiment in the darkroom with light on photo paper using long exposures. Man Ray had been among the first to explore Photograms, and Robert Rauschenberg would a few years later, but neither’s look like Mr. Klein’s. They found admirers among graphic designers, who featured them on magazine covers and record covers.

William Klein’s Photograms on the covers of Domus Magazine from 1955, 1959, and 1952, left to right.

His Painting turned out to open a door to his future when Alexander Lieberman, art director of Vogue saw a show of them in Paris and, impressed with his strong vision, saw a Fashion Photographer in him. William Klein, who was born in NYC before moving to Paris in 1946 to become a Painter came back to the City to work for Vogue. Along the way William Klein became Klein, and he broke as many rules shooting fashion as he did in his Art. He took models out of the studio and on to the streets and collaborated with them on shoots. Possibly as a result of this, Mr. Lieberman also funded William Klein’s desire to shoot the streets of NYC. The body of work that became Life is Good came into being, as did the Photographer being christened, “the angry young man of photography1.”

A wall of prints from the classic Life is Good & Good for You in New York, 1956, taken between 1954 and 1956. Almost all of the work in the show was from the William Klein Studio, and the prints were spectacular.

Filling two floors, almost all of the work on view was provided by the Artist, himself, most likely marking the final time he would be directly involved in a show of his work. The quality of the prints on view, many “printed later,” were of the highest order. The black & white prints were unforgettable- black could never be blacker, and many of the color Fashion Photos were printed at a large, even huge size, which made them even more stunning.

A timeless image of NYC, Selwyn, 42nd Street, New York, 1955 (printed 2016), Gelatin silver print. The play of light and shade in this incredible print is a subject all its own. I’m not sure black can be blacker than this.

The late Robert Frank is, possibly, the most influential Photographer of the past 60 years, but a very strong case can be made that William Klein is in that discussion. His Life is Good & Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Reveals, was published in 1956, 2 years BEFORE Mr. Frank’s seminal The Americans. Seen alongside the Frank book, Life is Good is a fascinating counterpoint, showing a different America than that seen in The Americans. Mr. Frank got a lot of grief for showing America as he saw it. Mr. Klein’s Life is Good shows gritty NYC as the melting pot it has long been where anything could happen at any moment. But it is his style and technique that ruffled many feathers. Rough, raw, out of focus, as dark as night, off kilter, lacking coherent compositions, grainy…were among the criticisms of those who were perhaps thinking that Henri Cartier-Bresson had discovered the only “true way” to take Street Photographs. But, there was method to his madness, and his methods resounded with many viewers right up to today.

The avant-garde William Klein. Another multi-layered composition. Atget, then Walker Evans took Photos of similar scenes before William Klein, and Richard Estes has spent a good deal of his career Painting them, as I showed a few months back.

Looking through Life is Good is always surprising, even when you’ve seen it before. Quite a few people smile, indicating life was, indeed, good for them, in spite of the rough and tumble settings. A number of others (upwards of 50% of his subjects?) look at the camera and many of those seem to be in cahoots with the Photographer. Many images work in multiple layers from foreground to back. Many show fleeting moments that in Mr. Klein’s hands become intriguing, if not “decisive.” There is a section of urban landscapes in the middle that show a bit of the influence of Walker Evans, but mostly serve to give the book a decidedly avant-garde feel that it retains today. His Photographs down through the years from the b&w shots of NYC of the mid-1950s up to his color work in Brooklyn in 2013 show the universality of modern human existence. Whereas Mr. Frank observes masterfully, Klein often interacts.

Flat Plan for Life is Good & Good for You in New York, 1955, Ink, pencil and colored pencil on paper.

Whereas The Americans remains hugely influential here in the US, and perhaps not as much in the rest of the world, Life is Good & Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Reveals, has been hugely influential around the world. It singlehandedly rewrote the possibilities of Street Photography. Perhaps its influence was felt nowhere more than it was in Japan. Daido Moriyama, a great Street Photographer in his own right, has created an important career exploring some of the ideas & techniques William Klein used in Life is Good, which served as an influence and a catalyst2, particularly his high contrast, motion blur and unusual angles. So have any number of other important Japanese Photographers from the late 1950s, on, not to mention numerous others everywhere else. Nakahara Takuma, with Mr. Moriyama one of the Photographers who produced the legendary Provoke Magazine beginning in 1968, wrote a lengthy article on William Klein in 1967. In it, he said about the reaction to Life is Good, “…its impact was unprecedented. The reaction could even be called panic.” And, “…(a number of) photographers…thought of Klein’s photography as an ‘impudent ‘ amateur game, as mere technical experiment. Immediately after New York was published, critical opinion was polarized; rather than photography, it was advocates for the other related genres, such as painting and film, who supported it most positively3.” A case could be made that a good deal of Japanese Photography since its publication bears its influence. “It is not so surprising, therefore, that his photography, as something so new, became extremely popular, especially among the young,” Nakahara Takuma said in the same piece. Pretty remarkable for the first PhotoBook by an untrained Photographer. 

Atomic Bomb Sky, New York, 1955 (printed 2012), Gelatin silver print. Of the millions of images I’ve seen of NYC in my life, I’ve never seen one like this.

It should also be noted that Life is Good & Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Reveals has never been published in the USA4! Early on, every publisher rejected it. The first edition was published by Editions du Seuil in Paris in 1956. William Klein followed Life is Good with books on Paris (2002), Rome (1959), Moscow (1964) & Tokyo (1964. It was reported that Klein took 50,000 Photos for it5.), each of which got a section in the show, each of which remains out of print and highly sought after. 

Antonia and Yellow Taxi, New York, 1962 (printed 2016), from Vogue, Pigment print. When I saw this shot at AIPAD in 2017, I realized I needed to do a deep dive into William Klein. I’m still exploring his huge oeuvre. A bit reminicient of Saul Leiter, perhaps?

Meanwhile, Klein had become a top Fashion Photographer.

Installation view. Paris, 1964-83, in the lower foreground and to the right, Life is Good/NYC behind, Painted Contact Sheets above, and a sliver of the large video projection screen, left. I remain no fan of “holes” in museums, including this one which spans the width of the entire floor, except for 2 narrow walkways on the sides. For me they are just expensive wasted exhibition space. I’m not sure they add anything to the show-going experience. In William Klein’s case, quite a bit more work could have been shown.

The second floor was largely devoted to Mr. Klein’s Film work, which is equally revered and important.

Filmstrip montage from Muhammad Ali: The Greatest, 1964-74, Directed by William Klein.

I will leave that for others who have studied it closer than I have to cover. One thing about them that stands out is that Klein repeatedly focused on important Black figures of the time- Little Richard, Muhammad Ali and Eldridge Cleaver among them. 

Tramway, Capellona, Rome, 1956, (printed 2013), Gelatin silver print. It’s just me, but my mind juxtaposes this with Robert Frank’s Trolley-New Orleans, 1955, when I see this work.

In the end, William Klein proves impossible to pin down. Each time I look through Life is Good, I pick up on a different thread and see things I didn’t notice previously. That’s true of much of his work.

Kiev Railroad Station, Moscow, 1959 (printed 1997), Gelatin silver print.

Breaking the rules was easier for him because he didn’t know all of them. William Klein shows that, even without training, an Artist’s creativity and vision can be enough to create important, lasting and influential Art.

6 Gelatin silver prints from Tokyo, 1961, including Tokyo Stock Market and Yoyogi Hairdressing School, Tokyo, upper far right and lower far right, printed later.

WK:YES will serve as a testament to his accomplishment over his sixty-five year career and a benchmark for all future William Klein shows. Most likely its soon-to-be-published 400 page catalog will serve as a beacon to influence still more people and aspiring Artists, adding to the incalculable number Klein already has. 

R.I.P.

*-Soundtrack for this piece is “All Blues” by the Miles Davis Sextet from Miles’ immortal Kind of Blue, 1959–

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 7 years, during which over 275 full length pieces have been published!
I can no longer fund it myself. More on why here.
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Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
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  1. Gernsheim, A Concise History of Photography, 1986, p.131 ↩
  2. https://time.com/3792413/william-klein-daido-moriyama-double-feature/ ↩
  3. Nakahara Takuma, “William Klein,” 1967, reprinted in Provoke, Art Institute of Chicago, 2016, p.362 ↩
  4. A facsimile version with every page Photographically reproduced, some reduced, in a smaller size book was published by Errata Editions, NYC in 2010. When I bought a signed copy of it, the seller reported that Mr. Klein looked at it curiously before signing it having not seen it previously. An indication that it was not an “official” edition of Life is Good. ↩
  5. Nakahara Takuma, “William Klein,” 1967, reprinted in Provoke, Art Institute of Chicago, 2016. ↩

NighthawkNYC.com Is Seven! A Year In The Life Of…

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

In honor of its 7th Anniversary, July 15, 2022, I decided to take a look back at Year Seven of NighthawkNYC.com, my most challenging year yet.

Lying in the hospital in November, I seriously doubted I’d be able to continue NighthawkNYC.com and get through Year Seven. Then, things got a bit worse…

During Year 7-
-The galleries that survived (alongside the countless galleries, stores, restaurants and businesses that didn’t) reopened, with restrictions, after the covid shutdown.
-The museums moved closer to full schedules (though not completely), with restrictions.
-Cézanne, Alice Neel, Jennifer Packer, Jasper Johns were each given blockbuster shows. Richard Estes, who like Jasper Johns also turned 90 this past year, was not. I wrote about all of them this year.

Along with this, this past year was a very hard year for me, personally. I hit year 15 free of cancer, but dealt with a mysterious illness that I still don’t have an answer for, then suffered a devastating financial setback. In spite of ALL of it, I created & published TWENTY-FIVE full-length pieces in those 52 weeks! 20 of them while I was working on the 3 Richard Estes pieces that took me 11 months to finish.
See for yourself-

Published on NighthawkNYC.com between July 15, 2021 and July 14, 2022, Year Seven, interspersed with personal “highlights” of my year-

August 1, 2021- “The Met’s Alice Need Love Letter To NYC” (Clicking on the title in each white box below opens the piece so you can revisit it.)

The Met’s Alice Neel Love Letter To NYC

August 21- “Don’t Call Chuck Close A ‘Photorealist'”

The last time I saw Chuck Close, I ran into him while we were both out gallery crawling late one Thursday eve in October, 2017, here in a small basement gallery in Chelsea. It was fascinating to watch him study Art he (or I) had never seen before and hear his comments.

Don’t Call Chuck Close A “photorealist”

September 10- “Remembering 9/11”- For the very first time, to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of that that horrific, indelible day, I shared my memories of 9/11 and the Photos I took before, on 9/11, and immediately after.

Just unimaginable. The view from my window shortly after 9:05am on 9/11/2001 showing the North Tower, 1 World Trade Center, on fire. I’ve never shared any of the Photos in this piece before.

Remembering 9/11

On September 15th, I began having spells of lightheadedness. I immediately went to the doctor, who tested me and couldn’t find anything wrong. 

September 21- “Cézanne’s Other Revolution”

The Murder, 1874-75, Pencil, watercolor, and gouache on paper. In this tiny work, the knife is held high amidst an idyllic scene, with an ominous cross lurking above.

Cézanne’s Other Revolution

October 23- “Art Is Back In Chelsea”

Metro Pictures on West 24th Street. I have seen many memorable shows here, including the fine Louise Lawler show that’s up now. They said they decided to close because of the globalization of the Art market, which doesn’t suit their model. I’ll miss it.

Art Is Back In Chelsea

November 7- “Tyler Mitchell: Bringing Joy Back To Art”

Tyler Mitchell

Tyler Mitchell: Bringing Joy Back To Art

At 4:30pm on November 9th, I nearly fainted crossing 8th Avenue. Wearing all black in the dark, I’m sure I would have been killed if the light had changed. I staggered to the other side then managed to get in a cab and go to the Emergency Room. After 10 hours, they decided to admit me. I was in the hospital for 3 days and saw 27 doctors. None could tell me what was wrong. I walked home (about 2 miles) after being released feeling just like I did when I went to the E.R. .

November 19- “John Chamberlain’s Twisted Dreams.” A nurse chastised me for working on this piece while I was in the hospital.

John Chamberlain’s Twisted Dreams

At 4:30pm on November 20th, the day after I published the John Chamberlain piece, I had another near fainting spell. I went back to the Emergency Room where I spent another 7 hours. Again, they couldn’t find a cause. This time I was released and walked home. To this minute, I still don’t know what was wrong. I was subsequently put on medication for a heart problem discovered during testing. The lightheadedness seemed to largely get better. The doctors I informed of this said it didn’t make any medical sense. 

November 27- “NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021”

Zanele Muholi, the catalog for her show at, and published by, the Tate, London.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021

December 28- “NoteWorthy Art Books (And Bricks), 2021”

Toyin Ojih Odutola, The UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi

NoteWorthy Art Books (and Bricks), 2021

January 14, 2022- “NoteWorthy Music Book, 2021- Paul McCartney: The Lyrics”

From The Lyrics: Throughout the text Sir Paul regularly registers a very wide range of literature. Art is not left out. Left, we see him visiting Willem de Kooning, and right, one of his own Paintings from 1991.

NoteWorthy Music Book, 2021- Paul McCartney: The Lyrics

On January 20th, I suffered a devastating financial loss that leaves me having to focus on my survival full-time. To that point, I had worked on NighthawkNYC full-time for 6 1/2 years for no money, while other costs, besides my labor, have been quite substantial. 

February 4-  “Jasper Johns: Contemporary Art Begins Here”

Jasper Johns, Untitled, 2021, Acrylic and graphic over etching on paper. As strong as ever- at 90!

Jasper Johns: Contemporary Art Begins Here

February 19- “Cancer, +15”  Going in to cancer treatment, I had a 20% chance of getting through year 1 without additional treatment. Hard to believe I’m alive 15 years later…There are no words to express my Thanks. I hope sharing my experiences may help others…

Cancer, +15

February 21- “Jennifer Packer Arrives”

Jennifer Packer @ The Whitney. The word is out. The crowds are beginning to show up. December 28, 2021.

Jennifer Packer Arrives

March 21- “The Sculptural Photography of Vik Muniz”

Vik Muniz with his Nameless (Woman with Turban) after Alberto Henschel, 2020, Archival inkjet print, 90 by 59 inches, One of a kind.

The Sculptural Photography of Vik Muniz

April 4- “Nick Sethi’s PhotoBook Release In Canal Street”

Mind the meter. Nick Sethi takes it to the streets.

Nick Sethi’s PhotoBook Release In Canal Street

April 7- “The Brutal/Smells Like Teen Spirit Mashup” (Olivia Rodrigo meets Kurt Cobain)

Screencap of “Good 4 u,” Directed by Petra Collins.

The Brutal / Smells Like Teen Spirit Mashup

April 14- “Highlights of the Whitney Biennial: Matt Connors”

Matt Connors, One Wants to Insist Very Strongly, 2020

Highlights of the 2022 Whitney Biennial: Matt Connors

April 22- “Caslon Bevington’s Counterfeit Weather”

Caslon Bevington, Frictions (Variations A), 2022, Acrylic on panel, 16 x 20″

Caslon Bevington’s Counterfeit Weather

May 9- “Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures”

Alec Soth: A Pound of Pictures

May 16- “Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death”

The cover of Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death

May 22- “Richard Estes: Painter. With No Prefixes”

Richard Estes even took over my banner for his 90th. Double Self-Portrait, 1967, from near the beginning of his mature career, seen here behind me.

Richard Estes: Painter. With No Prefixes.

June 6- “Richard Estes Art: What I See”

Richard Estes, Times Square, 2004, 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.

Richard Estes Art: What I See

June 19- “Richard Estes: Two ‘Manifestos'”

Self-Portrait, 2013

Richard Estes: Two “Manifestos”

June 29- “Learning to Think like David Byrne”

Learning To Think Like David Byrne

July 11- “Thank You, Sheena Wagstaff” I’ll miss the recently departed Chair of The Met’s Modern & Contemporary Department. I close out Year Seven of NHNYC with a look at what she’s given me, NYC, and the world this past decade.

Sheena Wagstaff looking at a very large work by Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong & Co., April, 2018, when I happened upon her when we were both making the rounds of galleries one afternoon (independently, of course).

Thank You, Sheena Wagstaff

P H E W!
I can’t begin to tell you how much work all of that was. Oh, and I got through it all, and spent all of the year, alone. Every minute of it for the second year in a row. Trust me. You don’t want to try it.

On July 15, 2015, I started this site to share my passion for Art and what I’ve seen in the NYC Art world with those everywhere else. In the past 7 years, I’ve published about 275 full-length pieces- 275 in 364 weeks! I have created everything you see on this site for free, and it’s been FREE to access for all!

Well, sooner or later something had to give. Nothing is truly “free” on the internet, though. It means that all the expenses incurred in creating, running  and maintaining NighthawkNYC.com have fallen on me. For the past 7 years, I’ve managed to keep this site ad-free. To defray some of the high costs, I experimented with Amazon links for 3 pieces, then abandoned them. I’ve considered using Patreon, I’ve been told I should put up a pay-gate like other similar sites use.

I’ve decided that first, I should see how much support there is for what I’ve been doing.

If you like what I’ve been doing, if you find this site useful, if you’ve discovered an Artist you previously didn’t know and now are interested in, or a book you’ve taken to, or you want to support Independent Art writing- your support has never been needed more than it is right now. THIS is the time to help.

Donate to keep it up & ad-free below. Thank you!

As always- Thank You for reading my pieces.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “New York Minute” by Don Henley from The End of the Innocence, 1989 performed here by Eagles, unplugged in 1994-

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

Subscribe to be notified of new Posts, if any, below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

For L.

Thank You, Sheena Wagstaff

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava.

I was saddened to hear that Sheena Wagstaff stepped down as Leonard A. Lauder Chair of Modern & Contemporary Art at The Met (TM) last week. At least it was, apparently, by her choice, after a battle with long covid1.

Among many highlights I list below, perhaps this was THE highlight of Sheena Wagstaff’s tenure at The Met- The Met Breuer’s lobby seen on the day it opened, Met Member’s Preview, March 8, 2016, 10 days before it opened to the public, with banners for the now legendary shows it opened with.

There is no other person I have singled out for praise in the NYC Art world over the 7 years of NHNYC.com more than I have Sheena Wagstaff. Appointed January 10, 2012, in 2016, I called her the “Person of the Year” in NYC Art. Over her decade at the helm of M & C, she mounted quite a few memorable shows, a number of important shows, and some that are now legendary, at The Met Breuer, and at the 1000 Fifth Avenue Mothership. 

As it turns out, I was there on The Met Breuer’s Opening Day in March, 2016 and it’s closing day in March, 2020, and wrote about both.

The Met Breuer was established to be The Met’s “Modern &. Contemporary outpost” while the M & C wing at 1000 Fifth Avenue was undergoing renovations. Due to the economic situation the renovation was cancelled. The Met Breuer went on for 4 years, about half the originally announced duration, until The Met made a deal with The Frick to take over their Breuer Building lease. After TMB, Sheena Wagstaff continued mounting shows at 1000 Fifth Avenue, including more major & memorable shows. As I write this, two of her shows are up, and maybe there will be more that have already been in the works to come.

In her honor, I revisit some of the memorable shows I’ve seen with links to those I’ve written about, mounted during Sheena Wagstaff’s tenure at The Met-

Opening The Met Breuer–

The Artist seen on an iPad at the show.

Nasreen Mohamedi and here. To this day, the only show I’ve written about twice.

“Welcome to the future,” I captioned this Photo in the piece. Unfinished on Opening Day of The Met Breuer. Member’s Preview, March 8, 2016

Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible – Along with Nasreen Mohamedi, the two shows that opened The Met Breuer, March, 2016.

diane arbus in the beginning, 2016 – A brilliant installation of Ms. Arbus’s little known early work, included a Portrait of my late friend, Storme DeLaverie, that she told me Ms. Arbus took, but I’d never seen.

Lygia Pape, Tetia 1, C, 1976-2004, Golden thread, nails, wood, lighting, a work that wonderfully characterized the ephemeral nature of Ms. Pape’s work in a show remembered for its endless variety and surprise. Seen at Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms, her first major show in a US museum in June, 2017.

Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms, 2017

Having one of the biggest jobs in the entire Art world, I can’t begin to imagine how busy Sheena Wagstaff was. But, here she is looking at a very large work by Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong & Co., April, 2018. She still took the time to make the rounds of the galleries and see shows, as I came across her doing, as I was, here.

NYC Art Shows, 2016: Sheena Wagstaff Rules The Waves – My look at Art in NYC in 2016.

The opening galley of Mastry.

Kerry James Marshall: Mastry , 2017- Perhaps the most important show mounted during the run of the The Met Breuer.

Marsden Hartley, Smelt Brook Falls, 1937

Marsden Hartley”s Maine, 2017– A somewhat mythical Artist got an overdue close look.

Installation view of the first gallery.

Jack Whitten: Odyssey, 2018 – Jack Whitten lived, worked and died without anyone knowing he had ALSO created a large body of Sculpture. And, it was every bit as compelling as his wonderful Painting.

Delirious: Art At The Limit Of Reason, 2017

Edvard Munch: Between the Clock & the Bed 2017 – In my view, though not large, a brilliant show.

Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy, 2018

The crowd in the packed first galley struggling to see the blockbuster David Hockney show 2 days before it closed, February 23, 2018.

David Hockney, 2018. Back over at 1000 Fifth Avenue, it still boggles my mind that it was only one of FIVE major shows up at The Met at the same time. Four of them within feet of each other with the once-in-a-lifetime Michelangelo: Divine Designer & Draftsman right behind that rear wall seen above.

The under-known Thornton Dial, 1928-2016, had a few pieces in it, including History Refused to Die, 2004, center.

History Refused to Die: Hightlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift, 2018, at 1000 Fifth Avenue. What a great, small, show this was!

Very, very few got to see this. Seen here on its very last day, March 12, 2020. Installation view of the lobby on the 4th floor.

Gerhard Richter: Painting After All, 2020- A brilliantly selected, concise, overview of his long and productive career, which I saw on its last day, the final day The Met Breuer was open.

Home is a Foreign Place, one of the 3 shows that closed TMB, drawn from recent additions to the Permanent Collection showed how far The Met’s collection of M&C has come. Seen on its final day- March 12, 2020.

Home Is A Foreign Place, 2020. The last show I saw at The Met Breuer, which I saw after seeing the Richter show.

The Met Breuer closed, permanently as it turned out, right after I left the Richter show. My look back at it is here and here.

Standing in the covid line, keeping my distance, waiting to be allowed in. Still, it was just so great to be back home again, and it was well worth the inconveniences.

Alice Neel: People Come First, 2021- The first Met blockbuster after it reopened, I saw it as The Met’s love letter to the people of NYC.Epic Abstraction, 2018- Date – A show that’s been up for quite a while and has evolved over its run. Still as compelling in 2022 as it was when it opened.

Louise Bourgeois: Paintings, 2022 – Absolutely terrific. Nothing short of a revelation.

And there were the Roof Garden Commissions by-

Alex Da Corte 2021

Hector Zamora 2020

Alicja Kwade 2019

Huma Bhabha 2018

Adrian Villar Rojas 2017

Cornelia Parker 2016

Pierre Huyghe 2015

Imran Qureshi 2013

Dan Graham 2014

And the Facade Commissions-

Carol Bove 2021

Wangechi Mutu 2020

Before she came to The Met, Sheena Wagstaff was chief curator of the Tate, London. During her time there she mounted a wonderful Edward Hopper show that’s only known to us on this side of the pond through the fine catalog she edited for the show. I hoped she would give us a Hopper show, which didn’t happen. But, when she reinstalled The Met’s M&C galleries she gave Hopper’s The Lighthouse at Two Lights, 1929, pride of place. This was a marvelous choice, in my view, serving as a reminder of a work that has been a bit forgotten after becoming iconic and appearing on a US Postage Stamp in 1970,  Seen in 2018. The galleries have been rehung since.

Along with ALL of this, Sheena Wagstaff oversaw the reinstallation of the M & C galleries at 1000 Fifth Avenue, next to the installation of two galleries devoted to Thomas Hart Benton’s America Today murals and associated works (to the right of the Hopper in the Photo above) which The Met received as a gift shortly after Sheena came on board.

The late Sam Giliiam, 1933-2022, gifted this work, Carousel State, 1968, to The Met in 2018. He was honored by The Museum in 2017. Seen in Epic Abstraction in its current inkcaratnion, July, 2, 2022.

Currently, there are  two shows up as I write this Ms. Wagstaff was involved with- Epic Abstraction and Louise Bourgeois: Paintings. Both are excellent, the Bourgeois, a revelation. There may be more coming along that she was involved with, in addition to the Hew Locke: Gilt Facade Commission scheduled to open in September. 

Sheena Wagstaff before she spoke at the Nasreen Mohamedi Symposium at The Met in 2016. Right after she did, she happened to sit next to me.

I met Ms. Wagstaff, once, when she happened to sit down next to me at the Nasreen Mohamedi Symposium at The Met in 2016. Such was her passion for Nasreen, I learned in the show, that she traveled to India and visited places where Nasreen lived and sought out the site of her unmarked grave. After the symposium ended, I introduced myself to her and thanked her for the Nasreen Mohamedi show. I told her what a powerful impact discovering Nasreen in her show had on me (to this day, the only show I’ve devoted two pieces to). She responded asking me about one word I had chosen in expressing that, and immediately suggested a clarification. I came away feeling I had just spoken to one of the smartest people I’d ever met.

Sheena Wagstaff breaks through. Chelsea, April, 2018.

In 2018, I accidentally ran across her when we were both out seeing shows in Chelsea. The Whitestone Gallery had installed a piece over the entrance to their Gutai Art Association show that appeared as it it had been broken through, requiring visitors to walk through it to enter. I stood in the lobby watching visitors navigating this and snapping photos as they tried to “break through to the other side.” When I got home, I realized that one of those visitors was Sheena Wagstaff! I didn’t recognize her from the back. Now, this Photo speaks to me of her breaking through barriers while she was at The Met. Her shows were about inclusion, and breaking barriers, if nothing else.

Thank you, Sheena, so very much- for all of it.

Julie Mehretu, Conversion (S.M. del Popolo/After C.), 2019-20, just one of the countless pieces to enter The Met’s permanent collection of M & C Art during Sheena Wagstaff’s tenure, one of the last pieces in the most recent incarnation of her Epic Abstraction show, seen on July 2, 2022, the week before she left.

Her Met legacy will live on both in the shows she’s facilitated and the Art she has helped bring into the collection. In my opinion, her’s will be a tough act to follow at The Met. The Museum has been compared to an aircraft carrier. Given its four-city-block size, it’s bigger than one. Turning this ship is a MASSIVE undertaking, which is why I used the sea-faring analogy in my 2016 Sheena Wagstaff “Rules The Waves” piece. She has managed to turn the Met’s M & C exhibitions, and more importantly, its permanent collection, in the direction of inclusion. Whoever comes next is a very critical choice given that AND that the M & C wing is about to undertake is long-awaited remodeling. 

Though The Met is probably casting a very wide net for that person, here in NYC, it seems to me that now might be the time to see if Massimilliano Gioni might be interested in the position. He’s done a terrific job as Artistic Director at the New Museum. I’m saying nothing against them in suggesting him. 

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Thank U” by Alanis Morissette from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, 1998, about which Alanis said, “Basically, I had never stopped in my whole life, hadn’t taken a long breath, and I took a year and a half off and basically learned how to do that…” I hope Ms. Wagstaff is now able to take a long breath. Somehow, I doubt she will.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 7 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. As I face high expenses to keep it going, if you’ve found it worthwhile, please donate to keep it up & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

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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.”

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded and ad-free for over 6 years, during which over 250 full length pieces have been published. As I face large expenses to continue it, if you’ve found it worthwhile, you can donate to keep it going & ad-free below. Thank you!

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here.
Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them.
For “short takes” and additional pictures, follow @nighthawk_nyc on Instagram.

Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

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