Ahndraya Parlato

Ahndraya Parlato: Magic, Mystery, Love & Death

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Ahndraya Parlato.

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

The cover of Who is Changed and Who is Dead

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

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

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

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

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

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

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

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

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

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

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

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

From Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

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

From A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

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

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

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

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

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

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

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Oh, what would my life have been like these past almost 2 years without books? In a world without people, social events, or much else that most people considered regular parts of daily life “before,” I, like everyone else, was left to make the most out of what we had left, and make no mistake about it- I was, and am, grateful for what was left.

Though things returned to a semblance of what used to be called “normal” in the PhotoBook world in 2021, it was only that- a semblance. While the publishers somehow managed to hold up their end with the bigger houses announcing ambitious release plans with about the same amount of books as seen before 2020, things were a bit rockier elsewhere. The bigger book shows in NYC and the rest of the US were cancelled for 2021, so once again, retailers were the best way to actually see books in person, carefully. Things were still challenging for retail, and a number of independents I visited had cut down on their purchases, hours of operation, even whole departments, in order to survive. Hard to argue with that. So, it was still hard to see anywhere near as many new PhotoBooks as in years past. (Standard Disclaimer- As in years past, I have seen no one else’s list or reviews of books.)  Speaking of past years, I should mention that I have now been doing this list for four years. You can see the the prior installments for 2018 here, 2019 here, and 2020 here (I also looked at NoteWorthy Art Books in 2020 here and 2021 here). None of my pieces have sales links. As in past years, please note that publication dates are one thing, but I go by the dates I actually saw a book available for purchase- online or at retail, to include it in a specific year. Of those I saw this past year, these stood out as those I’d most highly recommend, which I call “NoteWorthy,” since there is no such thing as “best” in the Arts.

NoteWorthy Photobooks, 2021- Most Highly Recommended-

Gilles Peress, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing and the accompanying Annals of the North. Modified Steidl Photo

Gilles Peress, Whatever you say say nothing, Steidl- After 30 years in his archive, Mr. Peress has collaborated with Gerhard Steidl and the brilliant book designer Yolanda Cuomo on a book that many have already hailed as a PhotoBook for the ages. Indeed it is, but it also strikes me as a book for right now. At a time of so much strife here at home, it’s hard for me, for one, not to see elements of that in Mr. Peress’s strife filled work from a distant place and a another time.

Are there lessons from the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland in 1972 and 1980 when Mr. Peress took these Photographs we can use now? That’s for others to say. What I am sure of is that those killed remain dead. Does anything change? Well, there has been peace for almost 15 years now. While some might want to see more conflict documented among these 1,295 images, it is the images of courage to continue daily life in the midst of a world gone mad, to keep calm and carry on, as the catchphrase originally meant, that strike me just as much. Then there’s the Artistry.

Whatever you say is a master class in composition, street Photography/conflict Photography and immediate reaction, even though Mr. Peress was only in the early days of his illustrious career. So many times it seems that he anticipated an image the way Wayne Gretzky knew where the puck or his teammates would be seconds before they were. At close to 30 pounds with a wingspan when open close to 29 inches(!), it might not find its way into many homes, but every serious or institutional Art or Photography library needs it, and the accompanying 900 page annals of the north, on their sturdiest shelf.

Sara Cwynar, Glass Life, Aperture- In the world of surveillance capitalism we live in (but not here!), Sara Cwynar’s book looks and feels like a report card from the future, but it’s really a snap shot of the right now and recent past. Remember the marketing hubbub around the debut of the “Rose Gold” iPhone? Sara Cwynar made a film inspired by it called Rose Gold that’s now in MoMA’s Permanent Collection. Most of us are living in “Glass Life,” where much of our information, and some/many/most/all of our “personal connections” come from something with glass on it, which takes a good deal of our privacy in the process, providing a poor substitute for real intimacy. Her work has been most notably seen in a series of films (Soft Film, 2016, Rose Gold, 2017, and Red Film, 2018) that have been shown at MoMA and elsewhere. Stills from the films, and some of her portraits are collected in Glass Life. “But I now consider photography more of a tool in my work than a medium that I am totally devoted to,” she explained1. Though not a traditional “PhotoBook” per se, I find Glass Life stunning and ground-breaking.  

Sara Cwynar has been busy cataloging and connecting the various ways beauty and desirability are used by those in power to maintain or grow it, building a substantial image archive that, along with images she takes herself, she mines for her pieces. She first came to prominence for her eye-catching designs for the New York Times T Magazine, and has progressively built a major Art career this past decade with her Films and shows all over the world. As she approaches 10 years of solo shows, Ms. Cwynar has arrived as a doer and shaker in the Art world. Glass Life is a major, seminal, work of this young decade. 

Arthur Jafa, MAGNUMB, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark- Another Artist mostly known for his work in realms other than Photography, though in Mr. Jafa’s case, he works in a very wide range of mediums. MAGNUMB is an overview of his work with revealing interviews with the Artist included. From his sculpture of Ex-Slave Gordon on the cover, every page inside feels like it’s on fire.

Stills from his Films, and works in other medium, including his Photographs are included in one of the most important books of the year. After being called to work with Stanley Kubrick (on Eyes Wide Shut) and Spike Lee (he shot Crooklyn), Arthur Jafa has finally garnered recognition for his own work, something I don’t see that ending any time soon.

Unboxing my copy of American Geography…

Matt Black, American Geography, Thames & Hudson- Magnum Photos Member Matt Black (B. 1950) has been visiting & documenting American centers of poverty for the past six years, beginning with those around him in central California, where 1/3 of the population lives in poverty. During this time he has logged over 100,000 miles traveling to places with a poverty rate over 20% in 46 states and Puerto Rico. What he has brought back is body of work that is nothing short of comparable with that of the legendary Farm Security Administration (FSA) Photographs of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott and the rest in the 1930s, in my view, which are now icons of Photography and history.

Many of Mr. Black’s images are so stunning visually and Artistically they might be accused of distracting from their point- to show the rest of us how too many of us live. For me, it’s too hard to deny their status as Fine Art, but Mr. Black’s skill is such that he drives his point home in spades no matter the stunning Art of his craft. Lauded as a “future classic of photography” by the publisher, I’ve been watching this body of work being built the past five years and have been both stunned and mesmerized by each succeeding black & white image he has presented, so I knew this book would be a classic, without their words, the moment I learned of it. It’s not only a “future classic of photography,” it’s a classic right now.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2021- Excellent & Under The Radar-

Elliott Verdier from Reaching for Dawn. Elliott Verdier Photo.

Elliott Verdier, Reaching for Dawn, Dunes- After bringing the world A Shaded Path in 2019 on Kirghizistan, the French documentarian who has been featured in the New York Times (including this recent historic event he covered), among other outlets, turned his large format camera on the rarely seen country of Liberia in 2019, scene of a horrific civil war from 1989 to 2003. Mr. Verdier spent two years traipsing the country far and wide creating two different bodies of work- one, of landscapes in black & white, the other of color portraits. The results are published by Dune, the imprint he co-founded, in a book in a few different kinds of paper, and some pages in silver ink, like the books of that other great documentarian, Richard Mosse. The images are accompanied by texts by singer/songwriter Gaël Faye and 2011 Liberian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Reaching for Dawn makes a powerful counterpoint to Whatever you say, showing how the scars of war never really go away even though the conflict may be no longer seen. A remarkable PhotoBook and accomplishment on every level, that conveys a portrait of the land and the stoic resolve and dignity of the people who call it home.

Rosalind Fox Solomon, The Forgotten, Mack Books- Another Artist who has been on my list before- for her last book. In 2018, the instant classic Liberty Theater appeared here. This one is exceptional as well. It’s so easy to get caught up in imaginary narratives as you move from page to page to not fully appreciate how remarkable the passing Photos are. The Forgotten is another book in what is now an exceptional string of PhotoBooks by Rosalind Fox Solomon published by Mack Books, joining Them, in 2014, Got to Go, 2016, and the aforementioned Liberty Theater in 2018, each of which is highly recommended. At 91, it’s hard to think of any other Photographer who’s created so many excellent books the past 5-7 years besides Ms. Fox Solomon and Gregory Halpern. Find them while you can.

A sealed copy of Electronic Landscapes. Something that is going to be very rarely seen in the future, unless it’s reprinted.

Isaac Diggs and Edward Hillel, Electronic Landscapes, +Kris Graves Projects- I live in a city where great Music was has a long and storied history. Maybe you do, too. I bet for both of us, and probably almost every other place where great Music was made, almost no documentation of it exists, particularly of its beginnings. Isaac Diggs and Edward Hillel have seen to it that when people look back and want to know more about the beginnings of Detroit’s house, techno and hip-hop resurgence in 20 or 30 years the documentation will be there. And blessed they will be to have such a well-done and extremely well-organized book to refer to. +KGP was my NoteWorthy PhotoBook Publisher for 2020, when in spite of the pandemic and the worldwide shutdown, Kris Graves & Co. managed to publish 18 books! AND Mr. Graves created work, himself, that found him on the cover of National Geographic’s Photos of the Year Issue. This is Mr. Diggs third excellent book with +KGP. Only one, his equally excellent Middle Distance, is still available. Electronic Landscapes is just about sold out as I write this.

NoteWorthy 1st PhotoBooks, 2021-

Rahim Fortune, I can’t stand to see you cry, Loose Joints- Mr. Fortune’s debut is centered around his trip home to care for his ill father. The resulting book is a poignant meditation on life and its fleeting moments captured in black & white. Having had a parent who was sick for 6 years before passing, I am unfortunately acquainted with this. Mr. Fortune’s images don’t hide the worry, but his images are full of dignity and strength, while they meditate on life, death, love and loss. A remarkable debut.

Philip Montgomery: American Mirror, Aperture. 2021 saw a number of fine books that looked back at America either the past two years, or over the past few decades, by Mitch Epstein (Property Rights), Ken Light (Course of Empire), Robert Adams (American Silence) and Peter Van Agtmael (2020 and Sorry About The War), and others. For me, Philip Montgomery: American Mirror stood out for me among them, particularly because it’s a first PhotoBook. Mr. Montgomery’s style is stark, economical and direct all the while being beautiful, regardless of his subject. At just 33, his work has already been featured in the world’s most prestigious publications from The New York Times & The New York Times Magazine, to The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair, among many others. Here you can see why. While he Photographs other subjects, it only takes one look at American Mirror to see that Mr. Montgomery has all the makings of a major voice in what used to be called “Documentary Photography.” American Mirror screams “auspicious.” It’s one of those books people will be referring to while others will be desperately trying to find if it goes out of print.

NoteWorthy Retrospective, 2021-

Michael Schmidt: Photographs 1965-2014- The late German (1945-2014) is another of the many excellent Photographers who are not nearly as well known in the USA as they are in Europe. Michael Schmidt had a show, Michael Schmidt: U-NI-TY (EIN-HEIT), in 1996 at MoMA. It featured one of his most important bodies of work, created in response to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two Germanys. It’s not the only excellent book Michael Schmidt produced. Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) is widely recognized as a 20th century classic. The fine softcover reprint is gradually disappearing, so be forewarned to get it soon. Michael Schmidt: Photographs 1965-2014 provides a very well done look at all of his books and his entire career, much of which will be new to PhotoBook aficionados in the USA. Check it out and don’t wait long if you want it. It will be very expensive after it goes out of print.

Eikoh Hosoe, Mack Books– Largely a contemporary of Michael Schmidt, though on the other side of the world, Eikoh Hosoe (B.1933) is something of a well-kept secret outside of his native Japan. Inside Japan, he’s known for his fine work over a 65 year career as a Photographer in helping to create post-war Japanese Photography, and as a teacher, who counts the world-famous Photographer, Daido Moriyama, among his students. For those looking to see where Mr. Moriyama’s signature high-contrast style came from, Eikoh Hosoe will prove most illuminating. Mack has outdone themselves with this excellent, 400 page, retrospective in which everything (the layout, the covers, the inclusion of a chronology, the quality of the binding and the printing) is first rate, especially the content. It’s now possible for those of us outside Japan to get up to speed on Mr. Hosoe’s accomplishment and follow his career step by step in this beautiful book, which is likely to stand as “definitive” for at least the near future.

NoteWorthy Reissued PhotoBook, 2021-

Jason Ezkenazi, Wonderland, Red Hook Editions- I’d given up hope of seeing this book, which quickly sold out, after achieving near legendary status. Then, earlier this year Jason Ezkenazi reissued his classic, in a larger size, and I immediately jumped on the chance to get it. Now, I come to it backwards, Wonderland being Book 1 of a trilogy. I was able to get the excellent Black Garden, Book 2, and Departure Lounge, Book 3 (see NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2020) last year, which only served to heighten my desire to see Book 1, Wonderland. It certainly holds up to both its reputation and the passage of time. Don’t miss it this time.

NoteWorthy Exhibition Catalog, 2021-

Zanele Muholi, Tate- The renowned Photographer, Painter & Activist received a Retrospective at the Tate, London this past year that included about 260 pieces covering her entire career. The only thing missing were her Paintings, who’s debut I recently looked at. For those of us not able to see the show, the Tate’s catalog is an essential book especially when you consider that some of her earlier books, like the excellent Faces & Phases 2006-14 and Only Half The Picture, are out of print and hard to find reasonably priced. At the moment, it’s the only way to see her early work and an overview of her whole accomplishment to this point.

NoteWorthy Photobook of 2018 I Missed- Mea Culpa!-

A word of warning- New, sealed copies, like this one, are getting quite hard to find.

Zanele Muholi, Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Aperture, 2018- Speaking of Ms. Muholi, HOW did I not include this in my 2018 NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018 piece?

Zanele Muholi, from Brave Beauties and Somnyama Ngonyama (‘Hail, the Dark Lioness’), at Yancey Richardson, October, 2017

I had seen some of the work included in it at Yancey Richardson in 2017 and been stunned by it. The answer- the first printing sold out before I could get a copy. Suffice it to say that it is one of the masterpieces of the PhotoBook genre published this past decade. Though she has done other books and they are all worth seeking out, if she had only done this book, it would be sufficient to secure her place among the world’s great living portraitists- in any medium. Still, that only enhances the value of her ground-breaking work as an activist documenting over-looked and at risk communities.

NoteWorthy PhotoBook After My Own Heart, 2021-

Ahndraya Parlato, Who is Changed and Who is Dead, Mack Books- Parents aren’t supposed to leave their kids. At least that’s what their kids believe. Even into adulthood. So, few kids think about the death of their parent, none are prepared to lose one, or both. In my experience, even after a long terminal illness, the passing comes as a big shock. When one’s parent commits suicide, it can feel like abandonment. The “victim” in this case is NOT the deceased. It is those Mom or Dad left behind. Being an offspring of one parental suicide, I am one of those victims, like Ahndraya Parlato is. No one has spoken for us- writer, novelist, or Artist, until Ms. Parlato braved this minefield, accompanied by her children, to create a book that is at once extremely personal, yet expresses the permanence of loss that all parental suicide victims live with. Her wonderful Photography (most recently seen in 2016’s excellent A SPECTACLE AND NOTHING STRANGE), is here accompanied by her writing, the two dialoging with, and enhancing, the other at every turn of the page. The loss is tinged with a longing I know too well, in the form of a light from a distant star, or creating work with her mother’s ashes.

Her children provide another dimension, and something more- hope. Had they been absent, the book might have been darker, but more narrowly focused. Instead, they show that Ms. Parlato is not alone in this struggle to survive and overcome the past that never ends. Yet, with them comes fear. While all of us live with fear in our daily lives (my big one is being hit by an ever-present bike on the sidewalks or streets of Manhattan). In both our cases, it is the unexpected sudden and life-altering event that would seem to lie underneath them. I have no idea what it’s like to have and to raise kids. I’ve never even held a child. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if both our fears are born in the wake of the trauma of losing a parent so suddenly and horrifically. Ahndraya’s book is THE most personal PhotoBook I saw in 2021. I applaud her courage wholeheartedly, and if creating Who is Changed… was, in part at least, an act of therapy, I only hope it helps. 

NoteWorthy PhotoBook Issued Before 2021 First Seen in 2021-

The seven volumes of Robert Frank’s Visual Diaries, 2010-17, six in a similar design- a softcover in a slipcase. The seventh is Household Inventory Record, 2013, right, designed to look like the original which was created in an actual Household Inventory Record book, so it looks different.

Robert Frank, “The Visual Diaries,” Steidl- As I wrote in my piece, The “Other” Robert Frank, I was one of the many who best knew Robert Frank from The Americans (though I had London/Wales, Moving Out, and Looking In, the latter two are not “by” Mr. Frank), before launching into trying to see as many of his “other” books as possible during the shutdown, like most of the books on this list, thanks to the USPS! The Visual Diaries is not an official title but the title the publisher, Steidl, refers to the group of seven books Mr. Frank created between 2013 and 2017 by. Now having seen about 20 of his “other” books, they each have a good deal to recommend them, and they are essential for Photographers or anyone who is trying to get an overview of Modern & Contemporary Photography, post-the publication of Mr. Frank’s The Americans in 1958 and 1959. And oh yeah, anyone trying to get a more complete picture of Robert Frank’s seminal career & accomplishment. These are as personal as one would expect from a “diary.” Filled with unpublished and familiar images over Mr. Frank’s long and productive life (he never stopped creating, which will come as news to many Americans fans), they are master classes in “How to make a great PhotoBook,” from their arrangement, page layout, and of course, the uncompromising Photos, which often seem to go out of their way to break every rule anyone else holds dear. And, unlike 99% of the other PhotoBooks I saw in 2021, the images are marvelously chosen and beautifully sequenced. None are superfluous. None weaken, or even bring down, the whole. If there is one thing most PhotoBooks I see continually fall short in, that’s it.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Diggin The New” by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros as heard on their album Rock Art & The X-Ray Style.

The Old Chelsea Post Office, May 29, 2020, fittingly half in shadow, during the height of the pandemic in NYC and during the height of the discussion about cutting the funding of the USPS. Yet, through it all, Manager Miss Lloyd and her staff showed up almost every day and persevered throughout.

This Post is dedicated to Miss Lloyd & the Staff of the Old Chelsea Post Office, NYC, which not only got books to me, but also were my first source of masks and alcohol, when there were none to be found anywhere locally. Miss Lloyd, the overall manager of this Post Office, recently retired, but not before getting her staff and her customers through the worst of the very, very dark days of the early pandemic. Thank you for your service, Miss Lloyd & Staff!

November 26, 2021- I started this post in better times and have worked on it all year. I mysteriously fell ill in September and I have been in and out of the E.R. and the hospital since. While the 21 doctors I’ve seen thus far are still trying to get to the bottom of it, some progress has been made, and my life altered as a result. I’m being monitored 24/7 as I write this, (but Sara Cwynar might remind me that we all are. ; ) ) I want to extend my thanks to everyone involved with my treatment and the staff of Mount Sinai’s Emergency Room & Hospital for their truly amazing care. Yes, even to the nurse who chastised me for working on this piece while I was hospitalized!

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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.

  1. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/sara-cwynar/ ↩

Gregory Halpern’s America

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (except *)
Late one March afternoon, winding up a long day of looking at The Photography Show/AIPAD, 20171, having seen thousands of Photographs and almost as many PhotoBooks, I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this at Aperture Foundation’s booth-

Gregory Halpern, Untitled (from Buffalo), 2017 *Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos Photo

Who is Gregory Halpern, I wondered? That night I researched him and saw about 30 of his Photographs. While it’s not unusual to see 1, 2 even 5 pieces by an Artist unknown to me that catch my eye, once it gets to more than 10, the Artist has my attention. Here, were threefold that many and I hadn’t seen one that didn’t speak to me. I went back to AIPAD the next day and bought the piece. Mr. Halpern happened to be there and I got a chance to meet him and speak with him. Living with the work for almost 3 years now, I find myself as intrigued by it as I was the first moment I saw it. Everything about it compels me. But something nagged me about the composition. I must have seen this elsewhere, right? It’s ostensibly such a simple subject- what appears to be a man eats a meal at a table- it’s one of the more common subjects in Art History, and any number of Painters and Photographers have mined it. Then something a bit remarkable happened. Try as I might, to this moment, I haven’t found a direct predecessor for it in Art or Photo history.
There’s this by Edgar Degas-

Edgar Degas, The Absinthe Drinker, 1876, Oil on canvas *Photographer unknown

This by Edward Hopper-

Edward Hopper, Chop Suey, 1929, Oil on canvas *Photographer unknown

Though, perhaps these two Photographs by Constantine Manos of Magnum Photos (of which Mr. Halpern became a Nominee Member of in 2018) come closest of those known to me-

Constantine Manos, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, 2000, Photograph *Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos

Constantine Manos, Miami Beach, Florida, USA, 2003, Photograph *Constantine Manos/Magnum Photos

A similar thing has happened to me with innumerable Photographs by Gregory Halpern since. Somehow, he manages to skate through Art history without repeating what’s already been done2. I’ve come to think this isn’t by accident. When I’ve spoken to him or read his interviews, I’ve found that he has a veritable encyclopedic knowledge of Photographers and PhotoBooks, and is an avid student of Art History as well.

15 years of work in Omaha, edited down to 150 images. Now? Sequence and arrange these into a classic PhotoBook.

While I was introduced to him as a “wall Artist,” he’s said the PhotoBook is the best medium for his work- “It definitely is. I love the space between images. The things that happen when you turn the page, when you are looking at a new image with the ghost of the previous image lingering in your mind… I love the feel of being swept up, as if by a stream, by a book of photographs.” So, after my introduction to Gregory Halpern, as a “wall Artist,” it was time to explore his PhotoBooks. I’ve spent the past two and a half years doing so.

Gregory Halpern, front right, in his element, discussing a PhotoBook. Here, he happens to be introducing the limited “Book Edition” of his brand new Omaha Sketchbook, while publisher Michael Mack, behind him, unwraps copies of it for waiting customers during a signing at The Strand Bookstore, September 21, 2019.

His latest PhotoBook, the MACK Books edition of Omaha Sketchbook, was released in September, completing a 15 year project that was initially published in a book of the same title in 2009 in an edition of just 35 copies by Jason Fulford’s J&L Books. As it was released, I was ready to dig into Omaha Sketchbook when a chance sighting at The Strand Bookstore got me thinking a bit more broadly.

Strand Bookstore, September 25, 2019.

It was the day after Mr. Halpern had been back to the Strand speaking to an audience about the new MACK Books edition of Omaha Sketchbook, the timing of its September release was a bit unfortunately coincidental coming a few weeks after the passing of Robert Frank. There in front of me was an appropriately well worn display copy of Mr. Frank’s landmark PhotoBook, The Americans, next to The Photographer’s Playbook, edited by Mr. Halpern and Jason Fulford. It got me thinking about the last five PhotoBooks Gregory Halpern has now released3 particularly because the new MACK Edition of Omaha Sketchbook happens to bookend this (unofficial) body of five Photobooks, that includes A(2011), ZZYZX (2016), Confederate Moons (2018), and the original, 2009 J&L Books edition, of Omaha Sketchbook.

“Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And walked off to look for America.”^

A dog stands watch silhouetted on the first spread in Gregory Halpern’s latest PhotoBook, Omaha Sketchbook, 2019, MACK Books. Interestingly, this was the final image in the J&L Books edition in 2009. If that’s not the definition of “open-ended,” I don’t know what is. Note the color of the paper, which changes with each turn of the page.

Pondering them, his five most recent PhotoBooks do have some things have in common with The Americans. Both Mr. Frank’s and Mr. Halpern’s books resulted from extensive travel through the country, though Mr. Frank’s is a concise look at America as a whole, in his inimitable style, and each of Mr. Halpern’s more local, and even taken in toto, doesn’t cover the country. A close comparison is not the intent of this piece. Besides, it’s dangerous to read too much into this. Mr. Halpern has said “there aren’t honestly any specific ‘models’ I could point to“ for Omaha Sketchbook, specifically referring to The Americans. Leaving aside any question of influence then, particularly after the exercise I undertook with Untitled (from Buffalo), above, I will say I find it utterly fascinating to look through The Americans and then look through each of Gregory Halpern’s books. Sixty years have passed since Robert Frank created the work in his classic book4, and yes, times have indeed changed, but how much has America, or Americans, changed? Have we gone forward, stayed in the same place, or gone backwards since the late 1950’s? This is one question I ask myself as I go back and forth between The Americans and Mr. Halpern’s books, particularly since his body of books now covers 15 years of work. 15 is one of those nice round numbers I like to use as a signpost to consider where we’ve been.

“Greg” Halpern, Harvard Works Because We Do, 2003, his first PhotoBook predates the books under discussion here. It features words(!) and Photos by Mr. Halpern for a cause. Harvard Works is an important book in my view, sadly, every bit as relevant today, Filled with excellent, black & white(!) portraits, like the one on the cover, Don’t miss it if you are interested in his work, or the cause.

Actually, it’s worthwhile to go back one book further, to Mr. Halpern’s first PhotoBook, Harvard Works Because We Do, published by Quantuck Lane Press in 2003, which addressed the issue of the lack of a living wage for University food workers, custodians and security guards. For those who only know his later books, Harvard Works is a fascinating look at Mr. Halpern’s beginnings, one that holds up every bit today, including unfortunately, the importance of the issue he’s addressing, as can be seen in the fact that others, like the fine Artist Ramiro Gomez, have been focusing on the same subject. The book includes transcripts of interviews conducted by Mr. Halpern and edited down into concise statements accompanying the pictured subject. (By the way, I’m taking this as an opportunity to mention that Gregory Halpern is, also, one of the finest writers on Photography today known to me.)

“The work itself sucks, all right?,” so begins the statement of Carol-Ann Malatesta, accompanying her portrait in Harvard Works

For this overview of his work to date, the Photographic portraits are strong, straight forward, though, to my eyes, there are a number that show signs of the Artist within. It’s a significant book, both for the situation and conditions it documents, and centrally, those struggling with them it portrays, as well as for being Gregory Halpern’s first PhotoBook, and for both reasons, it’s a book that will remain important. “Greg” Halpern, as he is listed on the book, came away from Harvard Works feeling he wanted to take a more Artful, open-ended approach that would allow the viewer to react to the image in his or her own way. And this is what we see in each book he’s created since.

“‘Kathy,’ I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I’ve come to look for America”^5

An extremely rare pristine copy of the first iteration of Omaha Sketchbook, published in 2009 by J&L Books. *Photo from @Gregoryhalpern

Moving forward to 2009, with the publication of the original Omaha Sketchbook by J&L Books,  the stage was set for all that has come after in Mr. Halpern’s PhotoBooks. At The Strand on September 24th with Jason Fulford, he spoke about the genesis of the project. After winding up a teaching job in California, he cast around for residencies, finding one at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha. And so began a what would become a body of work that would take 15-years to complete.

Gregory Halpern, left, explains his working process and the creation of the original, large, construction paper book dummy for Omaha Sketchbook, which Jason Fulford holds. Note the spots on the pages from prints being mounted and removed as the Artist assessed them and possible arrangements. Strand Bookstore, September 24, 2019.

A few years in, after deciding to make a book dummy of the work he’d done, he went to an art supply store and looked at paper. Failing to find inspiration in the sterile white acid-free paper that was de rigueur, then and now, he discovered some faded construction paper in an abandoned school he was shooting in, and in a flash of inspiration realized he could use its rainbow of colors in a myriad of ways. He constructed a large book and mounted his prints- hand-cut from medium format contact sheets(!) with various sticky media that allowed him to place and remove the images and see how they “reacted to each other, for lack of a better word,” he said at The Strand. I find this whole idea ingenious.

Omaha Sketchbook, 2019, MACK Books edition, front cover.

He discovered that when he removed an image after a few days, a “ghost” of that image remained on the paper. Over a decade later, that effect would be recreated on the cover of the new MACK Books edition. After making his book dummy on the colored construction paper, he showed it to publisher Jason Fulford who decided to publish it through his J&L Books imprint. The J&L edition was produced a short time later, on white paper for expediency’s sake, with the 2009 New York Art Book Fair looming. Though it only sold “a few copies,” at the show, Mr. Halpern spoke of his pride at having created an actual book. He hasn’t looked back. But, he’s gone back. Though three other excellent books followed over the next 9 years, he kept returning to Omaha. I find this absolutely remarkable when you consider that along with this, Gregory Halpern is married (to the terrific and terrifically underknown Photographer, Ahndraya Parlato), he’s a father with young children, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, a Nominee Member of Magnum Photos, the co-editor (with Jason Fulford) of The Photographer’s Playbook, a contributor to The New York Times, The New Yorker, California Sunday Magazine and Aperture Magazine (among others), an exhibiting Artist who’s mounted shows on two continents, has a “mid-career” Retrospective coming in 2020 at no less than SFMoMA (Hello, NYC Museums? Is this on?)- ALL while creating 3 of the most memorable PhotoBooks of recent years along the way (A in 2011, ZZYZX in 2016 and Confederate Moons, 2018)- each of which involved extensive travel, two took a number of years. My fingers got tired just typing that list. Time for a paragraph break.

Eventually, Gregory and Jason got what was about 4 years of work at the time down to the 37 images I counted on the 44 pages of the original Omaha Sketchbook (OS, 2009, henceforth) when I was lucky to be able to look through an extremely rare copy for a few minutes. There should be a term for “rarer than rare ” when you’re dealing with something THIS rare. I counted 18 images (about 50%) that do not appear in the MACK edition. That OS, 2009 is remarkably concise becomes apparent when you see the new MACK Books edition (which I call OS, 2019). I found the overall effect of the two books remarkably similar, even though we now get over 100 additional images and Mr. Halpern has been Photographing in Omaha for a further 10 years. How to feel about this? Is the place and its residents, apparently, so little changed? Even though we’re looking at 15 years in the new edition, both books feel like time capsules.

This startling image taken inside a meat plant is the only image in OS, 2009 taken indoors, one of 23 portraits I counted in this edition. Note the white paper.

OS, 2009‘s first 5 images include a house or apartment building, but there’s no “domestic” feel- we don’t go inside them. The feel is we’re visiting, passing through. Instead, the only interior shot in the book is in a meat processing plant. One thread I note in OS, 2009 that continues from Harvard Works– Gregory Halpern is a master portraitist. By my count no less than 23 Photos in OS, 2009 (more than half of the 37) are (or include) portraits, dual portraits, group portraits or “portraits” of animals.

“Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said “Be careful his bowtie is really a camera”^

A, published in 2011 by J&L Books. A look at the “Rust Belt” in images taken from 2008-11.

This continued in his next book, A, also published by J&L Books, in 2011, consisting of work created in the American Rust Belt in cities like Baltimore, Cincinnati and Detroit, from 2008-11. Here, over 96 pages of large Photographs on its 9 1/2 by 11 3/4 inch pages, we see people and places who have seen better days, alongside some gleaming office buildings- greatly simplifying. A number of the portrait subjects look right into the camera, almost seeming to confront the viewer for a reaction.

From A, 2011. *Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos

And, speaking of “confronting,” the animal “portraits” continue, too, like this memorable one, the first Photograph in the book.

The first image in A, 2011 *Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos Photo

In my view, A is an overlooked classic. Perhaps, it’s only “overlooked” because its 1,000 copies have long since disappeared and those who have one aren’t parting with it because they appreciate how good it is So, the masses have yet to experience it. As a result, it’s a prime candidate among important contemporary Photobooks to be reissued. What began with OS, 2009, was furthered exponentially in A, before being carried even further, reaching a crescendo of sorts, with Mr. Halpern’s next book, the instant classic, ZZYZX, a look at Los Angeles and its vicinity shot between 2008 and 2015, published in 2016 by MACK Books.

“Toss me a cigarette, I think there’s one in my raincoat”
“We smoked the last one an hour ago”
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field”^

ZZYZX, 2016, one of the most influential PhotoBooks of the decade, now in its 3rd printing in 3 years.

Is it only 3 years since ZZYZX was published? For a book I hear mentioned and referred to so often, it feels as if it’s been around much longer. Today, I can’t tell which is bigger- its influence or its popularity. From the incredibly succinct editing and tight sequencing, to the beauty of its images, it’s a true epic in the Hollywood sense, mirroring the time it took to create. (Speaking of Hollywood- A ZZYZX fun fact- There’s a film named ZZYZX, that’s directed by a gentleman named Halpern. Richard Halpern.)

From ZZYZX, 2016 *Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos Photo

ZZYZX features more of Mr. Halpern’s memorable portraits, unexpected moments, like the one above, and something I can only describe with one word-

From ZZYZX. “And the moon rose over an open field”^*Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos Photo

“Magic.”

There are any number of Gregory Halpern’s images that have a “magical” quality for me, including both of these shown above. I know. I was about to agree with you in questioning my own sanity, when I came across this image by his wife, Ahndraya Parlato-

Gregory Halpern, youngster in tow, admiring Charles E. Burchfield’s Moonlight in a Flower Garden, 1961, Watercolor and charcoal on paper at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in his hometown of Buffalo, NY. *Photo by @ahndraya_parlato

Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), was an Artist Edward Hopper greatly admired, perhaps as much as any other contemporary, and said so when he was asked6. Mr. Burchfield was “best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature,” according to the Burchfield Penny Art Center site. Other words used to describe him are “visionary,””one of the most inventive American artists of the 20th century,” “fantastic,” mystically poetic.” It’s easy to imagine Mr. Halpern being influenced by Artists like Charles E. Burchfield, and Ms. Parlato’s image would seem to provide an insight as I try to understand these “fantastical” elements in his work.

Like this one on the cover of Confederate Moons, 2018, TBW Books  Charles E. Burchfield might be proud of this shot. Incredibly beautiful, ethereal, and equally daring- he’s shooting directly into the sun, a professor “breaking the rules,” which he’s said film has the latitude to allow him to.

These images are even more present in his next PhotoBook, Confederate Moons, TBW Books, 2018, which I singled out as the one PhotoBook I’d recommend for 2018 in my roundup of books for last year, a year of very strong PhotoBooks. Issued as part of the 4-volume TBW Annual Series 6 in a limited edition of 1,000, it’s now sold out which may explain why I feel it’s a bit overlooked, too. Unlike his other three books, Confederate Moons was shot in North and South Carolina in just one month, August, 2017, the month of the solar eclipse.

From Confederate Moons. *Gregory Halpern/Magnum Photos

While created in a shorter span, and a shorter book than the others, don’t let its brevity fool you. It has every one of the elements that make his 2 preceding books classics and a good deal of experimentation to boot. Living with it since April, 2018, it’s every bit as open-ended as his other books. One time, I read it as a “reminder” that nature, in the form of the sun, is a much more powerful “controller” of life than anyone’s hopes, wishes, or agenda, coming at a time when the nation was as divided as it had been in years. Then, the next time through, I just marveled at how busy Mr. Halpern must have been during those few minutes of the eclipse! Still, it’s another important, and beautiful, book in my opinion, and one I wouldn’t want to be without.

Gregory Halpern and Jason Fulford, with the wrist band, and a selection of the cut up contact sheet prints that appear in Omaha Sketchbook laid out for a talk on the book at The Strand on September 24th.

So, the stage was set for this unofficial set of books to be completed and come full circle when MACK Books announced a new edition of Omaha Sketchbook, now with a whopping 152 images. Also in my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2018 piece, I singled out MACK Books for praise for their excellent series of reissues, which enables PhotoBook lovers to buy new editions of classic and now incredibly rare (prounced “expensive”) PhotoBooks in beautifully produced new editions at regular prices. Omaha Sketchbook is the poster boy of this program, given that only 35 or so people got to see it the first time around. Michael Mack and MACK Books Head Designer Morgan Crowcroft-Brown have done a beautiful job from A to Z with OS, 2019, leaving me with only one caveat- I page through it so often, I wish it was a hardcover. But, that would probably add $10. to its $50. list price…MACK’s limited “Book Edition” of OS, 2019, takes the influence of Mr. Halpern’s book dummy literally, hand mounting the 152 prints into a handmade book, in the spirit of the original. (100 signed/numbered copies, $750. per as I write).

Another spread from the MACK Omaha Sketchbook. *MACK photo.

Immediately apparent as you dig into OS, 2019 are its revolutionary aspects- First, the ever-changing color of the pages, like the original book dummy shown earlier. I asked Morgan Crowcroft-Brown what we’re seeing here as I was curious about the paper in the regular edition. She told me, “They are actually scans of US construction paper. The paper was imperfect, covered with scuff marks and sun fading, but it made for an interesting backdrop to the contact prints. So these backgrounds were scanned then printed onto a textured offset paper, in an attempt to mimic the construction paper.” She, MACK and Mr. Halpern have given us the book as close as possible to what it was originally in the early days of the project, now at its completion with 152 images. It brings the project full circle in more ways than one. Given that they take up so much of the page relative to the images, the color is an element that’s impossible to ignore. It’s used in a wide variety of ways. First, to pick up a color in the Photograph, at other times a color that’s in a very small part of it. At still other times it reinforces or contrasts the mood of the Photo. Then there is the way OS, 2019 appears to be in sections- on light color paper in the beginning of the book, followed by a center section in red, leading to a gradual darkening in the last part. This gives the book a flow that reminds me of a Musical composition.

Projected overhead view of the table seen previously, with my ever-present nemesis, glare. During the talk Jason and Gregory created their own spontaneous 3 image arrangement from the pile and assessed how they “reacted” to each other, providing fascinating insight into their editing and sequencing processes. Mr. Halpern added that he would leave 2 and 3 image arrangements up on small shelves for, maybe, a week or a month to see how they worked.

Second- While there are numerous books of contact sheets, try as I might I can’t find another PhotoBook done using prints cut out of contact sheets! If you know of one, please let me know. If you look closely, you can see evidence of the prints being hand cut in their margins in things like uneven borders, which add to the “handmade” feel (the trade edition is, of course, not handmade). While some may prefer larger prints, I’m fine with them at this, smaller, size. Having just spent 5 months researching Jean-Michel Basquiat for a series of pieces on the 5 shows of his work going on around town this year, I recall he once said that he crossed out words to get people to look closer. I get the same feeling here. The small prints make you look closer.

Mr. Halpern has said the diptych on the right “exemplifies” the MACK Omaha Sketchbook for him. *MACK photo.

Another fascinating thing about OS, 2019 is though there are over 100 additional Photos, and though the body of work took 15 years to shoot, it’s impossible for me to tell when the Photos were taken. The only way I’ve found to tell if an image is earlier so far is if it appears in OS, 2009! In fact, if you didn’t know this was 15 years of work, I doubt you’d be able to tell that these weren’t all taken at the same time. Even more remarkably, as I’ve shown a taste of above, Mr. Halpern’s Photographic style has “changed” with each of his books, reaching its most experimental so far (to my eyes) in his most recent book, Confederate Moons. Yet, here, we are right back squarely in the same style he used in OS, 2009! All of these things add to the many levels in the book. Only a few weeks in, I’m sure there are more waiting to be discovered.

“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America”^

From A. Taken in the American Rust Belt, this image has haunted me since I first saw it. Today, I find it extraordinarily beautiful, a subject countless Painters might dream of.

In the end, all of those levels help create a different experience, with new discoveries, each time you look at it. Yet, each time I page through it, one thing hasn’t changed. As an Art lover, I find beauty in his work, as I’ve said, in the “picturesque” images as well as in the “grittier” ones. There’s a good deal of both here. No matter what his subject is- portrait, landscape, building or object, I find a full range of beauty in his work, that calls me back to look at and ponder again and again. And yes…there’s that “Magic.”

I was about to look for the French Painter who created something like this when I stopped remembering this was done by an American, and not Monet, or the Camilles- Pissarro or Corot. Though in bright sunlight, it has an air that makes some of its exceptional beauty subtle, down to the way the left side of the roof is framed by the two trunks.

In the now three years this month of my “deep dive” into Modern & Contemporary Photography, which I define as being the period after the publication of The Americans, I have yet to find another Photographer who’s work speaks to me like Gregory Halpern’s does.

Some discuss whether or not he’s a “documentary” Photographer, and I’m blessed to have come to Photography years after that discussion was rampant. I’m glad I missed it. As always, I prefer to let the work speak for itself. Gregory Halpern is an Artist, one of the most compelling working today, in my view, so I approach his work the same way I would that of any other Artist- without the baggage of any “boxes” in the way. Though each of his books stand on their own, considered as a “body” they paint a fascinating picture of where he’s been so far- literally and creatively, where you can already see the growth and the amazing things the man has accomplished already, in 15 short years.

Omaha Sketchbook, now available in the “Nature Photography” section of your favorite store. ? Over 450,000 people live in Omaha. Looks like someone else, besides me, needs to get out of town and “discover America.” On behalf of whoever did this…Sorry, Omaha!

Whether it be Robert Frank, Paul Simon, Gregory Halpern, or any number of the rest of us. People have been “looking for America” for a long time. It seems to me that if it were that easy to find? “America” would have been “found” long ago. In The Americans, as well as in A, ZZYZ, Confederate Moon, and Omaha Sketchbook, you get the sense that it’s here. Hiding in plain sight.

^-Soundtrack for this Post is “America” by Paul Simon and recorded by Simon & Garfunkel from their classic album Bookends, released in 1968.

My thanks to Gregory Halpern, Kellie McLaughlin of Aperture Foundation and Morgan Crowcroft-Brown of MACK Books. 

My prior pieces on Photography are here.
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  1. My complete coverage of AIPAD, 2017 is here, which includes more on Gregory Halpern. ↩
  2. Yes, there are “echoes” in his work. In his new Omaha Sketchbook, I note works that show the influence of The Bechers’ isolated Water Towers, Walker Evans’ Main Street of Pennsylvania Town, 1936, Robert Adams and his former teacher, Todd Hido, among others. I take these as conscious referencing- echoes, as I like to call them. ↩
  3. Not counting East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which he did with his wife, Photographer Ahndraya Parlato, since it is a collaboration. ↩
  4. The Americans was first published by Robert Delpine in France in 1958, and in the USA by Grove Press in 1959. ↩
  5. On the bootleg album entitled Village Vanguard, a collection of live recordings, in their performance of “America” in 1969, Simon & Garfunkel changed this line from “I’ve gone to look for America,” to “I’ve come to look for America,” which I opted to use here. ↩
  6. Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, P.265. ↩

Art In Manhattan, 2017- And Then There Were Five

It was a year of discovery. A year where I discovered some great Artists I previously hadn’t known, finally caught up with some I knew about but hadn’t gotten to see much of their work, and got lost exploring some remarkable Retrospectives- for Raymond Pettibon and Robert Rauschenberg, both accompanied by memorable satellite shows. Most of these are represented in my monthly NoteWorthy Show selections throughout the year. But? There was more! So, I’m going to take this moment to pause and look back at the revelations of 2017, look at some memorable shows I didn’t write about at the time, and finally, highlight a pair of men who, I feel, had an exceptional 2017 in Manhattan Art.

No doubt about it- the biggest discovery this year was a long overdue deep dive into the world of Contemporary Photography. From seeing well over 100 Photography shows, to spending five long days at “AIPAD: The Photography Show” (with well over 120 galleries from all over the world showing work), to going through hundreds of PhotoBooks, and meeting many Photographers, legendary, famous, or not quite yet, along with the staffs of two of the world’s leading Photography organizations- Aperture and Magnum, both celebrating major anniversaries this year. Rarely did a week pass when Photography wasn’t in the the picture. Of course, in a world were there are now more cameras than people it’s impossible to get to see everyone who’s doing great work. As happens each year, NO matter WHAT I do to prevent it, this year too, there were shows I didn’t find out about until they closed. UGGGH!!!! Along the way, there were quite a few revelations, and a good many other things solidified…at least for the moment.

First, the revelations. In Photography, particularly among those younger than 50 (I say 50 only because I seem to know/have heard of many of those over) and unknown to me, Gregory Halpern was the biggest revelation I had this year. His book “Zzyzx” won the prestigious Aperture Best Book Award for 2016, but I didn’t know that when I discovered his work at Aperture’s booth at AIPAD. I had never heard of him.

Gregory Halpern, “Untitled,” 2016, from his “Buffalo” series. Click any Photo for full size.

The work, “Untitled,” was a Photograph Aperture had run in the Spring, 2017 issues of it’s excellent quarterly magazine, in a pictorial by Mr. Halpern, titled “Buffalo.” I didn’t know that then, either. I simply saw the work, and then couldn’t get it out of my mind. It now hangs a few feet away. Out of everything I saw at AIPAD, particularly by those younger than 50 and unknown to me, this work grabbed me and didn’t let go. I went home that night with one thought on my mind- “WHO is Gregory Halpern?” After researching him most of the night, (including finding his incredibly honest and insightful answer to one very important question), serendipitously, I got to meet him the next day, and spoke to him about his book. It turned out to be a classic case where some things are better left unexamined. Gregory was so forthcoming in his answers about specific images I came too close for comfort to losing some of their mystery.

Gregory Halpern standing next “Untitled,” at Aperture’s Booth at AIPAD, March 31st.

In addition to being, in my eyes, one of the most talented Photographers of his generation, he is, also, one of it’s best writers. He’s the co-author of one of the most popular and respected Photography Manuals of 2017, “The Photographer’s Playbook,” and his occasionally published articles always enlighten and leave me wanting more. A Harvard grad, he’s now a professor in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology for some very lucky students. As if all of that isn’t enough, his wife, Ahndraya Parlato is, also, one of the revelations of the year as a Photographer. Her Photographs “glow”- in one way or another. Her most recent book, “A Spectacle and Nothing Strange,” is ethereal…mesmerizing…magical.

Leaving aside age or era, the work of Fred Herzog was, also, unknown to me. Early pioneers of color Photography have taken decades coming to the attention they deserve, such was the disdain color held among the Photographic cognoscenti for color Photography. With the publication of “Fred Herzog: Modern Color,” in February, 2017, an Artist who was fairly well-known, and appreciated, in his native Canada finally began becoming wider known in the USA. His work was memorably shown by Equinox Gallery of Vancouver at AIPAD this spring, where, I felt, it stood out.

Fred Herzog, “Main Barber,” 1968, seen at Equinox Gallery’s AIPAD booth.

Fred Herzog considers Saul Leiter THE master of early color Photography, and even with a giant like William Eggleston to consider (who’s 1976 MoMA show, “Photographs by William Eggleston,” which can be “visited” here, is widely credited with making color Photography “acceptable” in the world of “Fine Art”), it’s hard to argue with him. No Photographer new to me, regardless of age or period, had a bigger impact on me this year than Saul Leiter.

Saul Leiter, “Through Boards,” Circa 1957. This image appears (cropped) on the cover of the now classic book, “Saul Leiter: Early Color,” 2006, which launched the “Saul Leiter Renaissance.” It’s, perhaps, my very favorite Photobook. Sadly, now out of print, it would take real diligence to find a very good copy for less than $100. But, there are many worse uses of time. Photo by the Saul Leiter Foundation.

It took until 2006 for Saul Leiter to be recognized- FIFTY EIGHT years after he started taking color photographs. As with William Eggleston, Mr. Leiter was, also, a devoted Painter. I can see it in both of their work, and I believe it’s part of the reason their work speaks to me, perhaps, more than the work of any other Photographer of any period. It was his friend, no less than the great Artist Richard Pousette-Dart (who’s also an under appreciated Photographer), to encouraged him to pursue Photography.

“Walk with Soames,” 1958, This was 20 YEARS before William Eggleston’s ground breaking MoMA show “legitimized” color Photography in the Art world! Photo by Howard Greenberg Gallery.

Mr. Leiter saw and used color in his Photography in ways no one else has, achieving effects that today’s finest digital manipulators can only dream of. Saul Leiter didn’t need Photoshop to get his results. As very good as his Black & White work is, like Turner or Van Gogh, Saul Leiter was a true Poet of color, perhaps the greatest Master of Color in Photography, though it’s, of course, impossible and pointless to qualitatively compare.

“T,” Circa 1950(!).Photo by the Saul Leiter Foundation. Daring. Gorgeous.

A number of established Photographers had terrific shows in NYC in 2017 that I didn’t get to write about here. Among them are Mark Steinmetz, Mike Mandel, Raghubir Singh (though marked by controversy), Richard Avedon, Herman Leonard, Michael Kenna, and Edward Burtynsky. But, I’m going to address one I simply can’t let pass, because I continue to think about it.

Richard Misrach’s Photo, “Effigy #3, near Jacumba, California,” 2009, Pigment print mounted to Dibond, right rear, with Guillermo Galindo’s Musical Instrumet/Sculpure “Effigy,” 2014, center2014. Barely visible are two strings between the forearms. The grey rectangle on the lower left side of the pedestal is where a speaker is mounted.

“Richard Misrach: Border Cantos,” (at Pace, 510 West 25th Street), was an utterly remarkable and serendipitous collaboration between renowned Photographer Richard Misrach & Composer/Sculptor Guillermo Galindo on the subject of our southern border, those protecting it, and those trying to cross it. To accompany Mr. Misrach’s large, atmospheric Photographs, Mr. Galindo created a whole orchestra of Musical Instruments out of objects found along the border, and proceeded to compose and record a 4 hour score that was looped in the show’s back room to meditative effect, ingeniously installed so that the music being played was coming from speakers mounted inside the display of the specific instruments that were playing at any given moment. (The Artists have an excellent website for this show where you can, also, hear these remarkable instruments.)

Instruments, like this. Guillermo Galindo, “Tortillafono/Wall Vibraphone,” 2014, Metal. The discarded metal cap of an electrical box from the failed SBInet (Secure Border Initiative) surveillance program was turned into a mallet and string instrument sits in front of Richard Misrach’s “Artifacts fround from California to Texas between 2013 and 2015,” 2013-5, 86 x 57 inches, Pigment prints mounted to Dibond. Photos of items found along the border.

And this- Guillermo Galindo, “Teclata,” His description- “On this keyboard, empty cans, bottles, and a plastic cup act as piano strings. The surface of the instrument is decorated with Border Patrol ammunition boxes.”

The surround sound effect was like sitting in the middle of a small chamber music group. The instruments, themselves, were beautiful as sculpture, and the music, which sounded to me like a cross between Harry Partch (who, also, made his own instruments) and John Cage, on instruments that looked like Rauschenbergs, had me asking if it had been released on CD. Why not?

Richard Misrach, “Playas de Tijuana #1, San Diego,” 2013, Pigment print mounted to Dibond, 42 x 160 inches.

Mr. Misrach, who has spent forty years working in the American Desert on his renown “Desert Cantos” project, showed a remarkable selection of images taken since 2004, but more intensely since 2009 (the collaboration with Mr. Galindo dates back to 2012), that told the story in slices. The effect of the music, the images and the sculptures (musical and non) was hypnotic, and ultimately meditative on the situation, the people protecting the border, and the refugees, while at the same time, even for those directly untouched by this story, the show spoke to a larger sense of walls, borders and refugees, and resilience. The Artists found, or created, beauty in this situation, reflecting the very perseverance that is at the essence of survival.

Richard Misrach, “Wall, east of Nogales, Arizona,” 2014, 68 x 84 inches, Pigment print mounted to Dibond

On the Painting & Drawing front, the most important Painting/Drawing gallery show I haven’t addressed was Kara Walker (at Sikkema Jenkins and Co.). Before it opened the buildup was downright intense. First, these posters began appearing, which certainly raised eyebrows until you notice (along the lower left side) that the text was written by the Artist. The show was also featured in a cover article in one of the last print issues of the Village Voice. I can’t remember the last time an Art show made the Voice’s cover, but this was the last time one did.

 Kara Walker sounds a bit weary in the poster, and particularly in the “Artist’s Statement” that appears on the show’s page on the Sikkema website.

“Dredging the Quagmire (Bottomless Pit),” 2017 Oil stick and Sumi ink on paper collaged on linen, 18 feet long, seen in the show’s first room. A “bottomless quagmire” is what the history of and current state of race and gender relations does feel like at this moment in time.

In the lower right side, this almost submerged head seemed to echo Ms. Walker’s weariness in her Artist’s Statement. “But frankly I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of ‘having a voice’ or worse ‘being a role model.'”

After all the anticipation and buildup, at the packed opening, Ms. Walker, herself, was only to be seen for a little while, at least while I was there.

Kara Walker at the opening, September 7, 2017, with part of  “U.S.A. Idioms,” 2017, Sumi ink and collage on paper, almost 15 by 12 feet, in the background.

While she continues to create her signature Silhouettes, showing a gorgeous 2017 work titled “Slaughter of the Innocents (They Might be Guilty of Something),” that’s almost 18 1/2 feet long, the bulk of the show consists on her ink and collage works, that have increasingly come to the forefront of her shows as time has gone on, most recently in her Cleveland Museum show, “The Ecstasy of St. Kara,” 2016, and at MoMA’s “Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection,” which closed on July 30, 2017, where her “40 Acres of Mules,” a Charcoal Drawing on 3 sheets totaling almost 18 feet long that was acquired by the Museum the year before, was on view in what was something of a one-work preview for her Sikkema show.

“Slaughter of the Innocents (They Might be Guilty of Something),” 2017, Cut paper on canvas. For me, one thing Ms. Walker’s Silhouettes all seem to ask is “Why do you see, what you see?”

Whereas it’s hard for me to imagine the care, patience and deliberation it must take for Ms. Walker to create one of her silhouettes, her Drawing & Collages look like they are done in bursts of raw energy and passion. At times the images approach the quality of a caricature of an event. No matter the differences in creation, when you see her Silhouettes and Drawings side by side they’re unmistakably by the same Artist.

While the Silhouettes, mostly, seem to leave quite a bit to the imagination, including the race of each character, her Drawings & Collages do not, especially when it comes to violence. Nothing is held back, hinted at or hidden. In the Drawings and collages, she has taken away the curtain inherent in Silhouettes in depicting racism and gender crimes. We see the faces, skin color, eyes, and what each one is involved in doing.  You can choose to look away, but otherwise, it’s pretty hard to “miss” what’s going on. The results are shocking, though they have precedent going back to Goya’s “Los Caprichos,” and “The Disasters of War,” and Daumier through Warhol, as well as in the work of Photojournalists and “Conflict Photographers” from all over the world. In Kara Walker’s work, though, the time is centered between 1788, when slavery was legalized in the US, through post Civil War “Reconstruction.”  Where the Silhouettes present a shadow of the figure, and the actions, the Drawings shine direct light. In fact, there are almost no shadows in her drawings- there’s no where for the perpetrators to hide.

“The Pool Party of Sardanapalus (after Delacroix, Kienholz,” 2017, Sumi ink and collage on paper, Almost 12 feet long.

Eugene Delacroix, “The Death of Sardanapalus,” 1844, Oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris. Kara Walker is, also, an astute student of Art History. In her work, Sardanapalus lies horizontally near the upper left corner, apparently, taking no interest in the orgy of death going on, as he does, lying arm on elbow on a huge red bed in Delacroix’. Her Ed Kienholz reference is a bit harder to track down, but it might be this one.

In “Christ’s Entry into Journalism,” 2017, the ground is, also, gone. The figures hang in the space of the paper, though some sense of perspective remains- as you get closer to the top of the sheet, they get smaller.

“Christ’s Entry into Journalism,” 2017, Sumi ink and collage on paper, 140 x 196 inches.

In this work, Ms. Walker’s figures cut across time, with some appearing to be contemporary. To the right of center, a figure “rocks the mic.” In the lower center is a figure that appears to be a modern riot trooper, in a helmet with face shield and body armor. He appears to have clubs in each hand. Right next to his left hand is what appears to be a black head, in a hoodie, on a platter, being carried by a woman, who looks away, while others nearby watch, some with shock on their face, some pointing to the scene. Just behind them, an extended arm holds and American flag, while above them a figure gives a Nazi salute with one hand while holding a Rebel flag with the other. Up top, a lynched figure hangs from a tree branch while women on either side of him perform acrobatics, with Klansmen standing next to them. In front of that naked black women are attacked by a group of men, while, again, others see what is going on. In the center of the work, the decapitated hoodied head looks straight across at a Civil War soldier pointing a gun at him, across time. Is this 1863? Or 2016?

“Storm Ryder (You Must Hate Black People as Much as You Hate Yourself),” 2017, Oil stick and Sumi ink on paper collaged on linen.

The primacy of Drawing in her work was reinforced with the recent release of one of Ms Walker’s Sketchbooks from 1999, when the Artist was 29, as a book appropriately titled, “MCMXCIX.” It contains Drawings that, in style and subject, visitors to the Sikkema show will immediatley recognize. Interestingly, as Raymond Pettibon does in his shows (the latest concluding on June 24th, shortly before Ms. Walker’s opened), she prefers her larger works be tacked to the walls.

“Future Looks Bright,” 2017, Oil stick and Sumi ink on paper collaged on linen.

Kara Walker may be growing tired of being a “role model,” of being “a featured member of my racial group and/or my gender niche,” (as she says in her Artist’s Statement referenced above). Of course, I can’t imagine being Kara Walker, but I can understand that it gets to be “too much.” I’m not sure, however, what her other choice is. I mean, I’m sure she COULD do something else if she REALLY wanted to. After seeing all the work and passion she put into this show? I guess I’m just not convinced that she really DOES want to do something else. Yet.

Finally…Looking back on 2017… Last year I wrote that I felt Sheena Wagstaff had the best year in NYC Art. She’s had a very good 2017, too. But, this year, I think that The New Museum’s Massimiliano Gioni & Gary Carrion-Murayari. had special years, highlighted by the truly exemplary, and revolutionary, “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work” retrospective, which they then remounted simultaneously in Maastricht and Moscow. I feel it was “revolutionary” because totaling an unheard of 800 works, including brand new works created by the Artist for this show (some on the very walls of the New Museum), they gave an exhaustive look at Pettibon’s career, yet the show never slowed, never failed to keep and even raise interest. It even included work Pettibon did as a small child that he has now ammended in his own, unique style. Word has recently come that Gary Carrion-Murayari, who kindly answered my questions on the Pettibon Moscow show he co-curated, has also been named as a co-curator for the New Museum’s 2018 Triennial, so he could be ready to have another “big” year. Stay tuned!

The end result is that Massimiliano Gioni, Gary Carrion-Murayari, and the New Museum have served to put the “Big Four”1 Manhattan Museums on notice that, on their 40th anniversary, we are going to have to get used to saying the “Big Five.”

———————————–
A Special “Thank You!” to all the Artists who gave me their time and shared their thoughts with me in 2017, and to David White & Gina Guy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Gary Carrion-Murayari and Paul Jackson of the New Museum.
“Thank you!” to the Hattan Group and Kitty for research assistance, and to The Strand Bookstore for being open until 10:30pm seven nights a week. R.I.P. Owner, Fred Bass this week.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Heroic Elegy, Op. 36,” (1918), by Ernest Farrar, in honor of the 100th Anniversary of WW1, which was featured in another memorable show, “World War 1 & The Visual Arts” at The Met this year, as a way of honoring it, and all the Artists, and Musicians, lost during it. Shortly after “Heroic Elegy’s” premiere, Second Lieutenant Farrar was ordered to the Western Front. Two days after he arrived there, he was killed at the Battle of Epehy. He was 33. I first heard it while I was driving in Florida on September 11, 2002. The classical station there played it in honor of the first anniversary of 9/11. So taken with it was I that I pulled over and listened to it with my eyes closed, then immediately set about researching it’s composer. Though he wrote other fine works, “Heroic Elegy,” is special. It’s lightning in an 8 minute bottle. As beautiful as it is, there’s a quality, a confidence, in it that seems to promise so much more to come that he, tragically, never got the chance to give us, like the other Artists & Musicians lost far too early in this most senseless of wars.

“On The Fence, #17, The Good Riddance” Edition.

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  1. With all due respect to The Frick Collection, who the powers that be that came up with “the Big Four” left out. ↩

The Whitney Biennial Turns The World Upside Down

There’s more than “one way” to select a Biennial, and therein lies my rub…Click any photo to enlarge.

Ahh…The Whitney Biennial. That semi-annual whipping post, “they don’t make Art like they used to” kind of a show of Contemporary American Art by “young and lesser known Artists” that, frankly, I gave up on and stopped going to, missing the last one at the “old” Whitney (now The Met Breuer) in 2014. This new one, the first in their new building, ends on June 11.

Liberty by Puppies Puppies, 2017. “Give me your tired tourists, yearning for a selfie moment, rife with sociopolitical comment,” with an incomparable background. At various times, it’s a real performer, at others, it’s a mannequin. At no time will the Nighthawk go out on that deck.

Oh! What I do in the name of “Art!” Ummm…You need some gel or something for those spikes. That Torch seems to be slipping. And? Where is that big book? Whatever you do? DON’T look down!

If you have any interest in Contemporary American Art you should see it if you can. Is it a “must see?” My initial impression, which I Posted here on March 31 (which this Post replaces) left me feeling there was much to see and impressed by some of what I’d seen. Having made 10 visits thus far, however, my answer is “No.” Unfortunately, though there are a number of memorable pieces on view, and I think it’s highly likely you’ll discover some new names you’ll put on your list that you’ll want to explore further, overall, it’s not a must see, in my opinion. Let’s face it- there are so many really, really good shows going on here now. If you’d ask me what to see that’s up at the moment? I would say about the Biennial, “See it if you have time,” after seeing the others.

As always, it wouldn’t be the Biennial without some hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing, and “Wtf moments.” In this edition’s case they are there, and fairly serious negatives, in my opinion, mostly regarding the choices of what is included and what has been omitted.

True, but I’d at least like to survive this show. In the Wake, 2017, 2 of 16 Banners by Cauleen Smith.

As for my lists, after two visits, the name Samara Golden made mine of Modern & Contemporary Artists- of any age, to keep an eye on. After 10 visits? She’s still there. During each one, my wonder never ceased every time I experienced her work…ummm…installation….ummm….ok…creation, The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes, 2017. It is, literally, one of the most astonishing Art works I have seen since…? I honestly don’t know. Maybe, ever.

Check your expectations at whichever side door you choose to go in to enter Samara Golden’s work.

It’s so big with so much to see it may well be un-photographable. Hmmm…where have I heard that before?

“Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
yet your my favorite work of Art”*

It, literally, turns your world upside down it’s so disorienting. Like I said about the unforgettable Bruce Conner Retrospective when it was at MoMA, “Htf?,” substituting “How” for “What,” this work takes that “How” to the “nth” degree. Unfortunately for me, it’s a work that uses height as a key element, (as does “Liberty,” above). Being deathly afraid of heights I was unable during either visit to get close enough to the preferred viewing areas to really even see most of it and get the full effect. This is as close as I’ve managed to get (thanks to the Whitney staff for nailing me to the floor)-

One little bit of Samara Golden working her magic. Ok. I’m looking down at the sky, and up at the street. Whatever is going on? I’m not sitting in that chair.

During one visit, a viewer turned away and said, “It’s an optical illusion.” I didn’t reply, but thought to myself- “Yeah? So is the Mona Lisa. There’s no real woman up there on that canvas. There’s only oil paint, and whatever Leonardo Da Vinci put under it, and what’s been put over it up there. It’s what the Artist does with his or her materials that makes the miraculous thing called “Art.” I don’t understand exactly how that translation occurs, but I’m always glad when I it does, as with Samara Golden’s “The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes.”

Taken as a whole, I heartily applaud the up to the minute, very politically and socially aware bend to the show, which leaves plenty to think about, which both honors, and continues, the Whitney’s long-standing tradition of being involved.

Occupy Museum’s piece, Debtfair, recounts the historic rise of the mounting debt Artist face, as shown in this graph, trying to survive & create.

Samara Golden’s work does this, too, except she gives you very different things to think about. The feeling that came to my mind was the so-called “trip” section of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, forever my favorite film. I don’t want to say more about it to give readers a chance to experience it for themselves without anyone else’s words in their head (and that’s also why I’m including only one of the photos I attempted at this time). Ok, and also because I still don’t know what to make of it myself. To help me, I bought the brand new MoMA PS1 book for her The Flat Side Of The Knife, 2014 show there (of the same title) for background. After 10 visits, I’m not sure the book, interviews with the Artist, or ANYthing will help me better understand this work. (Note to self- You haven’t even read the information card for this piece. In fact? You don’t even know where it is!) You’re on your own to make of it as you will, and frankly? I prefer it that way. I wish more Contemporary Art “needed” less explaining.

Elsewhere, the other highlights, for me, are- the brilliant choice of having Henry Taylor and Photographer Deana Lawson (who share a real life working dialogue) share a gallery (Mr. Taylor’s biggest work is in the lobby area just off the elevator on the 6th floor, as I wrote about, and pictured, in my Post on Henry Taylor). Deana Lawson is, undoubtedly, one of the stars of this Biennial. For weeks after the show opened,  I heard her name on people’s lips just about every where I went. Amazingly, you can still buy an original work of hers, in a signed and numbered limited edition of 50 on Light Work’s excellent site, here, for $300.00! They also have an excellent edition of Contact Sheet dedicated to her, which was available there for $12.00. Neither will last long.

Installation view of the Deana Lawson-Henry Taylor gallery.

Deana Lawson, Sons of Kush, 2016. Apologies for the glare.

The Artists, KAYA (Painter Kerstin Bratsch and Sculptor Debo Eilers), impressed me with their unique works, as Artists striving to bend boundaries between mediums, possibly following the path of Frank Stella, and they succeed to memorable effect in the works shown here.

SERENE, Processione (ALIMA), Processione (JAKE), Processione (TIN), all 2017, by KAYA (Painter Kerstin Bratsch and Sculptor Debo Eilers)

Painters Jo Baer, Aliza Nisenbaum, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, and Dana Schulz stood out, for different reasons, but perhaps most importantly as far as I’m concerned, they show the ongoing vitality of Painting in 2017.

Veteran’s Day, 2016, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, “looks at figures who engaged in meaningful resistance. These include the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the international volunteers who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, Muhammad Ali, and Karl Marx and Engels,” per the info card.

Paintings outdoors? At night? One of an interesting series of work by Ulrike Muller, yes, seen outside on the 5th Floor, at night.

 

Jo Baer, Dusk (Bands and End-Points), 2012

The Whitney & the Biennial’s curators have taken a fair amount of heat for the inclusion of Dana Schulz’ Open Casket. Further on the controversy front, an entire gallery was devoted to Frances Stark’s series Censorship NOW, which consisted of a series of huge, painted, double page reproductions (with underscores in blood red paint) from the 2015 book of the same name by musician, writer, D.J., etc. Ian F. Svenonius. While her/their point is fascinating, I was left wondering if she/they chose the right targets. As with the other works I’ve shown thus far, it’s worth seeing for yourself and making your own mind up.

Frances Stark, Censorship NOW, 2017, large, painted reproductions, with notations, of the book of the same name by musician Ian F. Svenonius.

I will say that a good deal of the Biennial I most likely won’t see because I’m not particularly drawn to film & video. As for the negative aspects of this Biennial. I’m quite puzzled by a good deal of what’s installed on the 5th floor. This wouldn’t be so frustrating for me except for the fact that I can’t understand why so many deserving Artists, who I feel should be here, are not.

Yes, there was snow on the ground as the Biennial opened as seen on the 5th floor roof deck. I have nothing to say about anything else in this photo.

In line with my ongoing policy against being negative about Art or Artists, I’m not going to get specific about the latter. With regards to the former, there is a long list of Painters and Photographers, especially, who I feel are serious omissions. Here’s a short list-

Painters (in no particular order)- Where is Andy Piedilato? Jeff Elrod? Fahamu Pecou? Hope Gangloff? (Heck, Rod Penner is only 2-3 years older than Henry Taylor.)

Drawings-Ethan Murrow? Emil Ferris?

Photographers (By my count, there are only SIX in the show! Not counting, Artists, like Oto Gillen, who display stills from video. I don’t consider that Photography.)- Where is Gregory Halpern? Mike Brodie? (He’s 32, and though he says he’s “retired,” he deserves to be here.) Matt Black? Ahndraya Parlato?

In closing there is one thing I will say about Samara Golden’s “Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes.” Already, it’s apparent that no matter how many times in the years to come I visit the western end of the Whitney’s 5th floor I will think back to this work having been there, and marvel at how she did it…

“Hey,” I’ll say to no one in particular nearby in the future. “Did you see THAT?”

“Yeah,” someone I haven’t yet met will say. “They don’t make Biennials like they used to.”

“On The Fence,” #4- Samara Golden Edition.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “My Funny Valentine,” written by Rogers & Hart and published by Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

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 allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! 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.