Dave Heath

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2019. And others

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Three years in to my “deep dive” into the world of Modern & Contemporary Photography and PhotoBooks, I find myself at a crossroads. I’ve seen thousands of books, hundreds of Photography shows. I’ve answered most of the questions I had going into this exploration about Photography and its place in the larger Art world. Of course, there will always be more to see and more to learn. The joy of discovering a new (i.e. one previously not known to me) and terrific Artist continues to drive me. Though this past year this was balanced with something else. Frustration. Increasingly, I’m left with one inescapable feeling-

There are too many books!

Time and time again, I find myself holding a book with only one thought in my mind before I finish paging through it. “WHY was this book published??”

Paging through one of these becomes a mind-numbing blur…

99.5% of the time this happens to me with a “name” Photographer. The net result is wonder- I wonder what the process was that got this project to the point where I’m holding it in my hand. What was the publisher thinking? Who edited this material? Did anyone give ANY thought to the fact that at the end of the day, in many of these cases, only the historians are going to remember this book and they are going to use it when they assess said Photographer’s larger body of work, and it’s then going to serve to diminish his/her overall accomplishment.

With this looming on my mind, early this fall I had a dream. I dreamt the large PhotoBook publishers in the world took a year off during which they released no new books. Instead, they focused their efforts on making the public more aware of their existing, already published, PhotoBooks…particularly the really good ones that come out and quickly become afterthoughts when their next batch comes out.

But, wait. A REALLY good PhotoBook doesn’t have an expiration date! It continues to speak to those who pick it up indefinitely.

Before the crush. Early Saturday, September 21st in one of countless rooms at the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1. In the afternoon, this room was so crowded I wouldn’t have been able to move my arms to get this shot.

Meanwhile, back in the hard light of the day, none of what I’ve said above applies to smaller PhotoBook publishers. For most Photographers, getting a PhotoBook published is the only way their work can be seen beyond their immediate circle. As a former (and soon to be again) independent Jazz record producer, I can relate to their realities. Some live from book to book, hoping to break even so they can release their next book. Others, like Michelle Dunn Marsh & Minor Matters, are using new models to realize books by making sure readers want them. And? A good many of the small PhotoBook publishers, like Kris Graves Projects, routinely sell out of their titles. This spring, during a chat with one of the most respected European PhotoBook publishers, he bemoaned to me the conditions in bookstores there, speaking of table after table of deeply discounted books that weren’t selling. Since I haven’t been out of NYC overnight since 2012, I’ll have to take his word for that, and I don’t know which books are sitting on those tables. But I can’t help wonder if that’s an indication that we’re reaching a tipping point…

NYC, Fall, 2019

Yet, of course there are still really good PhotoBooks being released.

As I’ve repeatedly said, I don’t believe in “winners” or “losers.” There is no such thing as “best” in the Arts. Whatever criteria you use, it seems to me, the results are subjective. So? Look for yourself and see what speaks to you. As it was last year, this piece is born out of a common question- “Which books would you most highly recommend of all those you’ve seen this year?” For those with limited funds, or those who don’t have space for a collection of PhotoBooks, these are books that have held up for me, that continually draw me back to them, and have left a strong impression that will continue after the year is over. For the record- I bought every book I write about (this year, like last year, I did receive one as a gift). No one sponsors me. As always, I have not read anyone else’s reviews or looked at anyone else’s list.

NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2019

In the approximate order of their release-

Mari Katayama, Gift, United Vagabonds
Petra Collins, Miert Vage Te, Ha Lehetsz en is? or Why be u, when u can be me?, Baron Magazine
Gregory Halpern, Omaha Sketchbook, MACK Books

In Hungarian, where her family is from, Miert Vage Te, Ha Lehetsz en is? or in her English translation, Why be u, when u can be me?, Petra Collins’ latest is unique.

All three books break new ground. The first two, personally, the third both as a PhotoBook and for the way it looks at its subject. Gregory Halpern’s Confederate Moons was my most highly recommended book last year, when Petra Collins’ Coming of Age made my NoteWorthy First PhotoBook list. I recently looked at Gregory Halpern’s Omaha Sketchbook when I looked at Mr. Halpern’s body of PhotoBooks, and I deeply admire what Petra Collins is doing in helping to reclaim the world of imagery of women, particularly young women, in a male dominated world. Her work is even more remarkable when you consider she only picked up a camera for the first time in 2009. In 2019’s Why by u…? her work has grown so much it’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since Coming of Age, was published. And she’s taken her talents in multiple directions, including advertising, Music video and film. Yet, unlike many Photographers who have delved into those fields, so far, no matter what she’s turned her hand to it all feels like part of the whole to me, as can be seen in the second book she released in 2019, OMG! I’m being killed for Super Labo in Japan, which consists of unused (i.e. “killed”) advertising work. Why be u…? continues the threads she wrote about in Coming of Age– it’s deeply personal and startlingly revealing. I spoke with Ms. Collins twice this year and I asked her about the possible influence of Ralph Eugene Meatyard on Why be u…? She instantly, and firmly, said no. Instead she pointed to the opportunity to collaborate with the Artist & Sculptor Sarah Sitkin. The resulting Why be u when u can be me? is one of the most unique and remarkable Self-Portraiture projects of recent times, if not longer, in which she gives models, and herself the opportunity to pose wearing amazingly life-like masks of her face and other body parts. As she approaches one million followers online, I only hope the demons she’s written about so powerfully are in her past. The world needs her.

Mari Katayama is an Artist who’s barely known in the USA, thanks to a solo show this fall at the University of Michigan Museum. I have yet to find her terrific book, Gift, for sale here, so I spent the better part of the year seeking a copy. It so far exceeded my expectations and revealed one of the most remarkable Artists in the known world. Like Ms. Collins’ Why be you…?, it’s another utterly unique book of Self-Portraits. Her site says- “Suffering from congenital tibial hemimelia, Katayama had both legs amputated at age of 9. Since then, she has created numerous self-portrait photography together with embroidered objects and decorated prosthesis, using her own body as a living sculpture. Her belief is that tracing herself connects with other people and her everyday life can be also connected with the society and the world, just like the patchwork made with threads and a needle by stitching borders.” Mari Katayama (like my friend Magdalena Truchan, Christine Sun Kim and others), continue to show the world that disabled does not mean unable, particularly when it comes to Art. Gift leaves me wondering- While we live in a time that’s supposedly about inclusion, particularly in the Arts, why do so few disabled Artists reach the larger public?

NoteWorthy Photobook Publisher of 2019

Red Hook Books-
Sebastian Meyer, Under Every Yard of Sky
Jason Eskenazi, Departure Lounge, and Black Garden
Ben Brody, Attention Servicemember

After a long wait, we got the last 2 parts of Jason Eskenazi’s trilogy this year. The wait was worth it.

As the year went on and more books came out from Red Hook, instead of singling out one of these, I opted to take the easy way out and cite them for their body of work this year. Red Hook is giving Artists who may not otherwise be heard from a voice and they’re executing each project with power. This became very apparent when I heard Sebastian Meyer discuss his book and the difficulties he faced getting magazine publishers to run some of this work. His new, first, PhotoBook serves a double purpose- it documents a decade’s worth of work he created in Iraqi Kurdistan, while it also tells the story of his best friend and associate, the Photographer Kamran Najn, who was captured/abducted by ISIS, and remains missing. With his two books, Jason Eskenazi has finally completed the trilogy of books he began with the now legendary Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith, 2008. It turns out to be worth the wait, and with copies of Wonderland changing hands for 2 to 3 hundred dollars per these days in any condition, I wouldn’t wait long to buy its two brothers. My “Sleeper Recommdation of the Year” is Attention Servicemember by Ben Brody, a servicemember when he created this remarkable book, which, being a first PhotoBook, will be mentioned again.

NoteWorthy, no, Amazing Accomplishment in PhotoBook Publishing

This view of a full set of Lost II in its slipcase shows the location on the left, which doubles as the title of each book, and the Photographer on the right. .

Various Artists, LOST II, Kris Graves Projects. Last year, Kris Graves Projects had 2 titles on my NWPH, 2018 List- LOST and A Bleak Realty, a total of 11 books. Pretty remarkable. Particularly for an Artist-run smaller company. This year, Mr. Graves Projects has one title, but a total of 20 books on this list! LOST II may be unique in the annals of PhotoBook history. Show me the other 20 volume set that is as consistently terrific as LII is. Chock full of established ”names” and soon to be “names,” each book in the series digs deeply beneath the surface to give the viewer a look at a place you couldn’t get even if you were there. I was privileged to get a look at the making of this series I called “monumental” before it had even been published. Now actually having it, I feel it’s a landmark set people are going to continue to reference indefinitely. Published in a ridiculously low number of complete sets (under 100). If you can find one, don’t wait. I doubt it’s ever going to be cheaper than it is right now.

NoteWorthy First PhotoBook

Mari Katayama, Gift, United Vagabonds- For the second year in a row a book is listed under NW 1st PhotoBook and NW PhotoBook of 2019. It is both. I have no words for the beauty, power, courage shown on every page of this book. Unless that word is transcendental.

Jack Davison, Jack Davison, Loose Joints- The first printing just vaporized and it’s easy to understand why. Mr. Davison is, perhaps, best known on this side of the pond for his stunning work in the New York Times Magazine (most recently in his cover piece for the current, December 15th, issue), but his eponymous first PhotoBook will shock those expecting those haunting portraits with something else again. A tiny bit Saul Leiter, a tiny bit Ralston Crawford, a tiny bit….virtually every image seems to almost recall someone else, but not really. Jack Davison is the real deal and one of the most exciting new voices in Photography in the recent past known to me.

Ryan Vizzions, No Spiritual Surrender, Self-published- Here is a case of someone who finds a cause and is so taken with that cause that he sells all his stuff and moves clear across the country to document it. WOW! WHO does that these days? His cause was documenting indigenous power at Standing Rock, and the book is a collaboration with 6 women of the Oceti Sakowin, with over 100 of his Photographs from the 6 months he spent witnessing the NODAPL resistance.

Ryan Vizzions poses for me in front of a selection of his terrific work at Monroe Gallery’s booth at AIPAD on April 6, 2019 with his book on the shelf to the right.

Amazing work by a remarkable man I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with this April that deserves to be much more widely seen. Mr. Vizzions announced on December 10th that all 2,200 copies have now been sold, and, he signed every single one of them. He didn’t have to. You can feel how personal this is for him on every single page.

Ben Brody, Attention Servicemember- Mentioned earlier, this is one of the most exceptional books depicting the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan known to me. An extraordinary thing for a first PhotoBook who’s generous 304 pages still don’t feel like enough.

NoteWorthy Retrospective

Kwame Brathwaite, Black Is Beautiful, Aperture

Kwame Brathwaite, Black Is Beautiful, Aperture
AND
Dawoud Bey, Seeing Deeply, University of Texas Press- WHY did it take SO long for retrospectives on these important Artists? There are other books with selections of Mr. Bey’s work, but none (known to me) of Mr. Brathwaite’s! Aperture and the University of Texas Press have both done terrific jobs with these making it worth the wait, but there’s no forgiveness (to the whole publishing world) for the delay.

Thomas Demand, The Complete Papers, MACK Books– A remarkable book documenting a remarkable body of work that’s equal parts Sculpture and Photography. No. It’s more Sculpture, given how much work goes into creating each of his works- in paper! Beautifully rendered and realized in a majestic book that is only going to be more and more sought after as this unique Artist becomes better known in the USA.

NoteWorthy Exhibition Catalog

Dave Heath: Dialogues with Solitude

Dave Heath, Dialogues With Solitudes, Steidl- PLEASE don’t tell me this terrific book is already out of print! That’s what Steidl’s site says. So, RUN, don’t walk, and find a copy. It’s the best recent overview of the work of this wonderful Artist who has been in eclipse since his passing. This book was published in conjunction with the show at Le Bal, Paris last year. In my view, Dave Heath is one of the timeless masters of Photography. That he was, also, a master printer was proved for the ages when no less than the late Robert Frank asked him to make the prints for Mr. Frank’s first solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago after The Americans was released. Nuff said.

Richard Mosse The Castle, MACK Books- I saw Mr. Mosse’s show Heat Maps which included much of the work in The Castle at the renowned Jack Shainman Gallery in 2017 and it was mind-blowing- on any number of levels. For one thing, the pieces were SO big you could ponder them from a distance of 30 or more feet away, and then spend minutes, yes, minutes, walking along them at about arm’s length to inspect and appreciate the endless detail. Of course, the subject Mr. Mosse is addressing is the refugee crisis, and here it’s done using military grade technology in the aim of Art, instead of harm, and Art with the intent of bringing this gigantic crisis to wider attention in a book that includes 28 DOUBLE gatefolds. Each spread is preceded with a brief paragraph recapping the story of the place depicted and accompanied by large details on the outer panels.

The Castle.

This work is beautifully rendered in MACK’s edition of The Castle, who’s first edition promptly sold out. MACK used the opportunity of a second edition to bring Mr. Mosse in to fine tune the highlights. When I first heard this I wondered if it was a marketing ploy to get buyers to buy both editions. I had a chance to compare edition 1 and edition 2 side by side and yes, there is a difference. It struck me that the black point was brought down in the second printing, giving more emphasis to the silver highlights. Personally, I prefer the first printing, yet, it seems to me, that here is a case where you can’t go wrong with whatever edition you get. If you get the first, well then you have an out of print “collectible” by one of the more important Artists working today. If you get the second, you have a version that was overseen by the Artist. All of this is secondary to the fact that The Castle is one of the great achievements in PhotoBooks I saw in 2019.

Most NoteWorthy Book of 2018, Seen in 2019

Daniel Shea, 43-35 10th Street, Kodoji Press- PhotoBooks are a phenomenon and many of the best ones are published in such small quantities that once the word gets out the demand overwhelms the supply and they become impossible for the rest of us to see. Such was the case with 43-35 10th Street. It took me until February, 2019 to track down a copy, and I had to go to the titular address on the coldest day of the year to do so. I froze my butt off on the streets of Long Island City walking to and fro, but it helped me get a feel (once the feeling in my extremities returned) for the subject of this singular and gorgeous book, which is partially set there, a book that is so good had I seen it last year it would have been singled out with Gregory Halpern’s Confederate Moons as my most highly recommended. A year+ later, 43-35 10th Street is seen offered for sale increasingly less and less often. You can preview it on Daniel Shea’s site, and if you decide to go for it, don’t wait any longer.

NoteWorthy PhotoBook Designer, 2019

Morgan Crowcroft-Brown, MACK Books Head Designer- Richard Mosse’s The Castle. Gregory Halpern’s Omaha Sketchbook. Thomas Demand’s The Complete Papers. What do all three of these remarkable, and NoteWorthy, PhotoBooks have in common? Each one was published by MACK Books, and each one was designed by MACK Books Head Designer, Morgan Crowcroft-Brown. EACH of their designs is a significant part of the book’s effect, impact, and in the end, success. Bravo, Morgan!

NoteWorthy Overlooked Group of Photographers…Still!

Painters who Photographed.

Ralston Crawford- The Photographs of Ralston Crawford, and Ralston Crawford Torn Signs– The great Undiscovered Land for the Fine Art Photography world is the work of Painters who were also Photographers. There are more of them than anyone seems to realize and ALL of them have been SERIOUSLY overlooked by the Fine Art Photography world. The list is long and getting longer all the time. Ralston Crawford (1906-78) is just the latest case in point to receive long overdue attention and I’m using the fact that two excellent books on his work were released this year to make the larger point.

NoteWorthy Photographer I Only Discovered This Year

Ok, this is a tough one. Francesca Woodman– On Being An Angel, Koenig Books (2016)- Well? She is one now, and has been, tragically, for going on 40 years. But, oh my gosh. Every single time I pick up a book of her work, I break down in tears.

Every. Single. Time.

What incredibly beautiful work! What a talent! What an unfathomable loss at just 22 years of age!

Now? It lasts for about 5 minutes, then, thankfully, it passes, and I’m able to continue looking at her impossible work that feels like a message from another world. Thank goodness she created as much she did in 8 or 9 all too short years, between the ages of 13(!) and 22. There are other books on Francesca, and a very good one came out this year, but I’m singling out this one for a few reasons. First, it’s just gorgeous. The kind of book you can get lost in. The collection of her work is excellent. Second, it’s a nice, smaller size (Hey, Publishers? Remember how to make a great, smaller book? We don’t all live in more than 500 square feet.) It’s perfect for someone new to Ms. Woodman, or someone who wants to delve into it on the train. When I first discovered her and her work, I thought “This is the greatest natural Photographic talent I’ve ever seen.” Then, I thought I was doing her skill a disservice saying that. Finally, I realized that she knew exactly what she was doing, what she wanted, and how to get it, so her technique became invisible. I read things that people write diminishing her saying we’ve only seen part of her archives, but I could care less. Isn’t that true of every Artist & Photographer? Michelangelo, “El Divino,” is reported burning Drawings shortly before his death so that nothing by him would be left that was less than perfect. Francesca Woodman didn’t live long enough to have a career, let alone edit it. Even if not one decent image exists in everything else she created that has not yet been seen (which I doubt), her position is unassailable, undiminishable. Perhaps some are so threatened by an Artist who created so fearlessly, so “maturely,” so young? I don’t know. Ignore them and look at her work for yourself. In my opinion, her work will live for as long as humans have eyes with which to see.

On Being An Angel may be one of the most daring titles ever given by an Artist or a Photographer to a Self-Portrait (in this case, a series of them). In the case of Francesca Woodman, there is, of course, no more fitting title. Art is my religion. That’s why I capitalize it, and its associated terms. I believe there should be some distinction between the Art of someone like Michelangelo and art created by someone learning. In my own, personal, “church” of Art, Francesca Woodman is an Angel.

 

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Ask The Angels,” by Patti Smith, (a terrific Photographer in her own right, who released an Illustrated Edition of the book that won the NYC One Book Award this year, Just Kids, about her time with Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe this past year),  the first song on her album Radio Ethiopia. She gives it a wild reading here in 1977, while showing off some snazzy pants.

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On Painting & Photography

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (except *)

Note- Robert Frank has been mentioned in many of my pieces over the past 3 years of my “deep-dive” into Modern & Contemporary Photography, a realm that he had a seminal role in creating with the publication of  The Americans. When the sad news came that he had passed away at 94 on September 9th, I was finishing yet another piece that he is a part of- one that summarizes some of my thoughts on Painting & Photography these past three years, and also marks the 60th anniversary of the American publication of The Americans. Too far along to change, I’ve left it as it was, and added this as my “R.I.P.”  That Robert Frank was, and remains, one of the most influential figures in Art of our time was already testified to within.

Subtitle- “On Rembrandt’s 350th, and Robert Frank’s 60th”

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1660. The Artist is seen here in the last decade of his life. Seen on March 26, 2015 in The Met’s former European Paintings galleries.

When I look at Art, sooner or later, my thoughts involve Rembrandt for any one of a myriad of reasons. I do my best, however, to keep my thoughts about his death to a minimum, so this is going to be purposely short. Rembrandt was pretty poor the last decade of his life. His prior fame had deserted him as if he were a fad, or a “mania,” like tulips were in 1637 when he was 30, and combined with an extravagant lifestyle1 that he could no longer maintain, he lived in housing for the poor at the end2. When he died, at just 63, he was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. 20 years later, his bones were destroyed, as was the custom with the remains of such unfortunates. The church, where his unmarked grave was, finally got around to erecting a plaque, inside, in 1909. It redeemed itself some 30 years later when a young Jewish girl who was in hiding nearby from the Nazis took solace in the sound of the church’s bells. Today, there’s a statue of Anne Frank outside the church. His Art largely fell into eclipse, except for a few artists he influenced, for about 100 years, as hard as that is for us to imagine today. October 4, 2019, happens to be the 350th anniversary of his death.

Seen in situ. One of the glories of New York. Five of The Met’s Rembrandts seen in the European Paintings Galleries on June 10, 2017, before the current skylight renovations caused their relocation to the Robert Lehman Collection galleries. When I think of “home,” this gallery comes to mind.

I’ve remained passionate about the work of Rembrandt van Rijn since I was in my early teens and he is one of very very few Artists I can say that about. Almost no where else have I found the humanity, and the depth and range of humanity, I find in Rembrandt. Because of this, I find his Self-Portraits particularly fascinating. In the end, they show me that the Artist, himself, was every bit as human as anyone he ever depicted.

Rembrandt after Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, ca.1634-5, Red chalk, 14 x 18 inches, From The Met’s Lehman Collection. Seen in 2016.

Few other Artists I’ve seen have the power to say as much with just a few strokes as can be seen time and time again in his Drawings- like this one, in which Rembrandt manages to capture the entirety of Leonardo’s masterpiece (and add some additional elements that may have come from a print of the Painting he saw- Rembrandt never left Holland) in so few strokes, you can almost count them.

Self-Portrait in a Soft Hat, 1631, Etching completed with black chalk. The Artist was about 25 at this point at the beginning of his career. Seen at the Morgan Library in September, 2016.

Today, he’s honored as Holland’s favorite son. Public places have been renamed in his honor. (“Rembrandt Square,” etc., etc.). In 2015, the country paid a record price for 2 portraits by the Master, 180 million dollars, splitting the cost with France (for the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum), partially (largely?) because of their value to tourism, (i.e. so they can continue to cash in on him). Pretty ironic given how he was treated near and at the end of his life.

The most Rembrandt Self-Portraits in one place I’ve yet been in were these five etchings seen at Rembrandt’s First Masterpiece at the Morgan Library in September, 2016. I was shocked to see them when I walked in. I had no idea they were included.

So, to me, his end is one of the most unfortunate, and saddest, chapters in Art history. I’m not so sure it’s a cause for all that much celebrating. The world of Art seems to agree. There’s only one museum (as far as I know) anywhere in the world mounting a show of Rembrandt’s work that might be construed as honoring/memorializing it anytime close to that date, with that one actually opening on October 4th3.

Nonetheless, the chance to put a big round number on the front of a marketing campaign seems to be all that’s required for Taschen to leap into the breach with three new volumes in their XL (aka “HUGE!”) series of books. Well? In 87 years, for the 400th anniversary of his birth in 2106, actual physical paper books may be a thing of the past4 Whether they arrive as physical books, ebooks, or whatever form books will take in 87 years, I won’t be here to see them. As I write this, the first of Taschen’s “trilogy,” Rembrandt: The Self-Portraits (R:TSPs, henceforth) is out and in wide distribution. It’s a handsome volume, with a nifty cover image that displays one of 6 different Rembrandt Self-Portraits depending on the angle you look at it. I picked it up in a store and passed, even though nothing Rembrandt did has held me more spellbound for so long as his Self-Portraits have. So, why did I pass on this complete collection of them?  I was extremely disappointed that the great Rembrandt scholar Gary Schwartz wasn’t involved in it, and from what I understand isn’t involved in the other two volumes either. That statement will serve as my protest since I subsequently bought R:TSPs. With all due respect to the scholars chosen, no one will replace Gary Schwartz for me when it comes to Rembrandt- or any other Artist he turns his unique skillset to (Dear Mr. Schwartz, If you happen to see this? Jan van Eyck, Please?). Suffice it to say that the renowned Professor, Simon Schama, host of the PBS series, The Power of Art, dedicated his own Rembrandt biography, Rembrandt’s eyes, to Gary Schwartz.

“I regard Rembrandt’s self-portraits less as assertions of a strong personal identity than as a means to help the artist, like Saint Paul, become more like other people. Behind them lies a man who depended on his art to offset imbalances in his life and his relations with others.” Gary Schwartz.

Focusing on what we do get, the book itself is large, oversized as they say in the trade, a full 10 x 13.5 inches and weighs about 4 1/2 pounds, very light for a true Taschen XL which generally weigh in around 20 pounds. Its 176 pages contain a succinct essay and the rest of the book is Rembrandt, in my view, at his best. The reproductions are very good5, with many being reproduced in actual size.

A publicity shot by Taschen. Rest assured the copies sold in the USA are in English.*

Rembrandt was the first Artist to create a body of Self-Portraits. Yes, the cheap headline is “Rembrandt Invented The Selfie,” which, without looking, I’m sure has already been used to death. That’s not true. He was not the first to do a Self-Portrait, just to create a body of them among Artists known to us today. And what a body of work they are! We don’t have his diary, but, though it’s dangerous to read too much into the SPs (unless you want to), they are not really “pure” autobiography beyond the fact that yes, they do indeed depict the Artist, and we get to see his famous visage evolve as the years and decades go by. Exactly what is going on in each of them has been the subject of much conjecture, and I suspect will continue to be for as long as people look at them. He created them in oil, in ink, and with an etching needle (in Paintings, Drawings and Etchings). Though I love everything the man did, for me, they have been THE supreme body of Art since I saw my first one, shown up top, at The Met way back when. If I had to live the rest of my days only being allowed to look at one work of Art (oh jeez), it would be a Rembrandt Self-Portrait. But, please don’t ask me which one. Right now, I would select his Self-Portrait with Two Circles in England, but that choice is often a factor of which one I’ve looked at last. I’d take any of them- Painted, Drawn or Etched. And in R:TSPs, we get to see every one of them (they say).

Two pre-release copies of Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings, left, flank a copy of Rembrandt: The Complete Drawings & Etching, which complete Taschen’s “trilogy.” As close as I’ve gotten- so far.

While I am very much looking forward to seeing Rembrandt: The Complete Paintings (TCP, henceforth), it should be mentioned that though The Rembrandt Research Project issued its latest volume of what it calls the “Corpus” of the Master’s Paintings in 2016, the controversy around what that body “should” consist of shows no signs of ending, and so? Buyer beware! What’s agreed upon as his complete Paintings will, very possibly, change in the near future. So, even 350 years after his sad demise, this will most likely not be the “final word” on the subject.

Still, there’s so much of what RvR has accomplished in his other work that can be seen in his Self-Portraits. You can trace a good deal of his development as an Artist in this work. And then? There is the incredible Painting! No matter how much Painting I’ve seen in the 40 year (next year6 I’ve been going to shows, my mind always comes back, for a variety of reasons, to “how Rembrandt Painted it.”

Ok. So, you’re wondering- What does all of this have to do with Robert Frank?

Robert Frank: The Americans, my copy of Steidl’s 50th Anniversary edition, 2008.

Questionable timing aside, for me, the real value of RvR:TSPs coming out now has been the bath of the icy cold water of “reality” it’s thrown on my deep dive into Modern & Contemporary Photography, by which I mean post-Robert Frank’s The Americans, the most seminal PhotoBook of our time. 2019 marks the 60th Anniversary of American publication of The Americans (and there’s been almost no fanfare about that- as far as I’ve seen thus far)7. This fall/winter marks 3 years of my “deep dive” into this realm of M&C Photography that I consider The Americans the first bookmark in, a beginning of, in a sense. I started from the place of believing that Photography had not, as yet, earned its place with Painting, Drawing and Sculpture. Looking at R:TSPs? I realized that after everything I’ve seen, I can’t say my mind has been changed all that much. For one thing, though, it’s still a very young medium- particularly when compared to thousands of years of Painting. After all, they’re marketing the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s passing, and he’s thousands of years after Artists started Painting. Jan van Eyck was one of the first to use oil paint in the early 1400’s. Photography (with chemicals) has been around since Sir John F.W. Herschel coined the word in his paper “On the Art of Photography; or the Application of the Chemical Rays of Light to the Purpose of Pictorial Presentation,” on March 14, 18398– 180 years. But, the more I look at both, there’s one thing that strikes me as a major difference between Painting and Photographs-

Time.

It takes time to create a Painting. Even if the Artist does one quickly. In most Paintings, it takes longer to apply one brushstroke than it does to create most Photographs.

I think I can see that. And, I think it’s telling.

I’m not the only one.

David Hockney, Don & Christopher, Los Angeles, 1982, Polaroid collage “Joiner.” Seen at David Hockney, The Met, January, 2018.

Earlier this year, while I was formulating my thoughts on this subject, before I saw R:TSPs, I came across 2 books by David Hockney, Cameraworks, 1984, and Hockney on ‘Art,’ conversations with Paul Joyce, published in 1999. In both of them, Mr. Hockney 9, a man who has created both Paintings and Photographs (since 196710), and innovated in both realms, put into words much of what I was thinking- uncannily. “During the last several months I’ve come to realize that it has something to do with the amount of time that’s been put into the image. I mean, Rembrandt spent days, weeks, painting a portrait. You can go to a museum and look at a Rembrandt for hours and you’re not going to spend as much time looking as he spent panitng- observing, layering his observations, layering the time.” “My main argument was that a photograph could not be looked at for a long time. Have you noticed that?,” David Hockney, Cameraworks, P.9. There. He just said it for me.

Recently, in these very pages, without any question from me or the knowledge that I was working on this piece, the Photographer Fred Cray said– “One of the concerns I’ve always had with photography is the way it holds up on the wall with paintings and other media. Photography often seems thin and quick compared to painting.”

Anytime I see a Photographic portrait, my mind (at times, unconsciously) always turns to Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits (though, much of what I’m saying here could also be said for almost all of his portraits, as Mr. Hockney inferred). Not as a way of qualitatively comparing them. As a means of gauging the impact. They are the benchmark for me. Most of the time, the impact of the Photography in question isn’t the same. I wondered why for most of the first two years of this dive. Early in 2019, it hit me. Time. Time is a key element in Painting. In so many ways. From the time each stroke takes to apply, to how long it takes to complete the work to the rendering of time, itself, in the work. These are not questions most Photographers have to face. They deal with questions of light and setting before the fact, then they’re finished- unless they modify it later in printing, or digitally.

Unknown Artist seen Painting on 7th Avenue, NYC, September, 2019. Yes, he got a parking ticket. Many Street Photographers would have been done long before this gentleman got set up.

Of course, Painters have ways of dealing with this question to ensure whatever level of consistency in the lighting they want. They can work in their studio, or they can work from a live subject, a still life, a Photograph, a Drawing, or what have you. Even au plain air, as the Artist above, is doing. Time is effecting the result in other ways. My feeling is it’s this passing of time, in this multiplicity of ways, that it takes the Artist to create the work that is manifesting itself in the work in subtle ways, maybe some of them are so subtle as to be subconscious, but that are nonetheless part of what the viewer experiences. With each brush stroke, time is passing, and in a real way, time is being layered on to the canvas. Time is absolute in a Photograph- it’s the same time at the top as it is at the bottom, unless you’re shooting with a time lapse, like Stephen Wilkes.

All of this also serves to remind me, again, of possibly why great Contemporary Painters, like Richard Estes, John Salt, Rod Penner, and David Hockney as well, among many others, use their own Photographs as part of their working process, but the reason they are Painters and not Photographers is because of what they find lacking in Photography- what it can’t present of their vision that Painting can. They’re not alone. The list of great Painters who also took Photographs at some point is long- ranging from Thomas Eakins, Edgar Degas and Edvard Munch, through Ralston Crawford and Robert Rauschenberg, and even Picasso. I find it telling that not a single one of them identified himself as a “Photographer.” Only Charles Sheeler was dually identified and that might be because his Photography earned him money to support his Painting.

Then, in the midst of all of these thoughts, a terrific new book was released by Steidl, Dave Heath: Dialogues With Solitude, the catalog for a show at LE BAL, Paris in 2018. It gave me pause for thought.

My copy of Dave Heath: Dialogues With Solitude, Steidl, 2019.

WHO is Dave Heath?

From Dave Heath: Dialogues With Solitude, Steidl, 2019. *Photo courtesy of Steidl.

It turns out that Mr. Heath was, not is, unfortunately, but his work struck me every bit as hard as any I’ve seen in this 3 year deep dive. Particularly, his portraits, and specifically his portraits of one subject not looking at the camera.

Dave Heath’s earliest body of work are Photographs he took while serving in Korea in 1953-4, including this one. From Dave Heath: Dialogues With Solitude, Steidl, 2019. *Photo courtesy of Steidl.

It turns out that he was not only a master with a camera- a master of the Portrait, he was, also, a master printer. To the point that no less than the aforementioned, esteemed, Robert Frank paid Mr. Heath to print his work for what I believe was his first solo show at no less than the Art Institute of Chicago in April, 1961, a byproduct of The Americans’ release here two years earlier. That says it all.

My copy of Dave Heath’s A Dialogue With Solitude in the 2000 Lumiere Press edition. The books is on the right. The print is in the sleeve to the left.

Captivated by what I’d seen in the Steidl book, which is very well printed, in my opinion, though, unfortunately, Mr. Heath, who passed away in June, 2016, was not involved in it, I learned that Dave Heath’s “masterpiece” is the PhotoBook, A Dialogue With Solitude, 1965, a subject I am quite familiar with. I hunted down a “reasonably” priced copy of the 2000 Lumiere Press limited edition reprint with a signed & numbered print. The reprinted edition includes a letter from Robert Frank. The print in my set is “Washington Square, New York City, 1958.”

Washington Square, New York City, 1958. A Photograph that leaves me speechless, and turns my thoughts to Rembrandt.

It’s one of the very greatest accomplishments in PhotoBooks I’ve yet seen. Given what I said about his printing, the inclusion of a signed & numbered print in the Lumiere Press edition is a key. When I saw it for the first time I had a feeling that was closest of any Photograph I can think of to that I get while looking at a Rembrandt Portrait. Of course, as always, your results may differ.

For some reason that I can’t fathom, the word is that “Mr. Heath’s work went out of style.” Well? Rembrandt, too, “went out of style,” for well over a century, as hard as that might seem to believe to us now. Now, with Steidl’s Dave Heath: Dialogues With Solitude, it seems to me that a show or a book that returns a great, overlooked or forgotten Artist to the world has done that world a great cultural service. I can’t think of a higher purpose for either.

David Hockney, Perspective Is Tunnel Vision, Outside It Opens Up, 2017, Acrylic on two canvases. David Hockney shows how the camera sees in “tunnel vision,” single point perspective,” versus how humans see with what he calls “reverse perspective,” with infinite vanishing points, born of driving through a 10 mile long tunnel in Europe then suddenly coming into the great outdoors in 198511.

Reading David Hockney further, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Photography, he speaks time and again that cameras, while being great at reproducing two dimensional objects12, do not see the way humans do. He has devoted much of his subsequent Painting career (as seen in his fascinating recent shows) to challenging traditional perspective and exploring the innovations of both Renaissance masters and the masters of Cubism.

David Hockney, Grand Canyon I, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 96″ hexagonal, seen in April, 2018. Outside, it, indeeds, “opens up.” The Artist has also begun cutting the corners off his canvases to reinforce his ideas.

In 1999, Mr. Hockney asked, “How many truly memorable pictures are there? Considering the millions of photographs taken, there are few memorable images in this medium, which should tell us something. There have been far more images made this way than the sum of all previous images put together.” (Paul Joyce, Hockney on ‘Art’, P.43.) One thing that’s changed since Mr. Hockney said those words is that there are now more cameras in the world then there are people. It seems to me that that’s going to be a factor in this. The sheer number of Photographers versus Painters is, and is likely to remain indefinitely, skewed incredibly. Incalculably. It makes the odds of a “great” Photograph out of the billions being taken incrementally greater. “Quality only comes with quantity,” legendary Photographer Daido Moriyama said explaining why he takes so many Photos, in How I Take Photographs, page 7313.

I’ve noticed that the rise of Photography has coincided with a relatively ”quiet period” in Painting, in some ways. While this has lasted a few decades, more recently, I don’t have to look any further than my own 200+ piece Archive. I’ve said a number of times that one of the reasons I decided to focus on Photography the past three years was the lack of Painting shows that spoke to me sufficiently to undertake the work these pieces require. I wonder how much longer this will last- Is this an anomaly, or is this the beginning of the way things are going to be? Will we see the number of painters going forward that we’ve seen for the past 500 years? Of course, sheer numbers, or the lack of them, don’t guarantee masterpieces or geniuses. Greater numbers only serve to increase the odds.

At the three year mark, I’m still not convinced that Photography will come to be seen as Art in hundreds of years when that question is decided, IF anyone still cares about Art then. But? If they do, my bets are that Rembrandt’s will still be among the work most highly appreciated.

A work like Dave Heath’s Washington Square, New York City, 1958, gives me hope that Photography may still get there. Is it, as Mr. Hockney said, an image in a billion? Or is it an indication of what might be possible in the medium? I will continue to look…

Meanwhile, on October 4th? I’ll just light a candle. To go with the one in memory of Robert Frank. While I continue my dialogue with Davids Hockney and Heath…

*-Soundtrack for this Post is “Grace,” written by Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas from Jeff’s immortal album, Grace. I worked with Mr. Lucas, and I booked Music into the now legendary NYC Music Club/Cafe, Sin-E in 1993, shortly after Jeff had played and recorded there. And then? He was suddenly…gone. I never met him or heard him perform in person. One of the great regrets of my life.

BookMarks–

My copy of The Rembrandt Book, (THE Rembrandt Book, or TRB, as I call it), by Gary Schwartz. In my opinion, it’s a model of everything a truly great Art monograph should be.

In addition to the books I referred to above, if someone were to ask me to pick one book on Rembrandt? I would choose The Rembrandt Book, by the aforementioned Gary Schwartz. It’s a book designed for readers both new to Rembrandt or expert on the Dutch Master, and so, it’s a book for a lifetime of enjoyment and research. Published in 2006 by Harry N. Abrams, it’s the SECOND full length monograph on Rembrandt by Gary Schwartz, and they couldn’t be more different (In a world where ANYone else would be thrilled to write one magnificent book on Rembrandt? HOW incredible is that?) or compliment each other better. TRB is oversized at 10 x 13 and weighs 6 pounds, but it is my bible on Rembrandt, and if I can’t find what I’m looking for there? I go to his prior monograph, the equally highly regarded, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, 380 pages and 3.6 pounds, published by Viking in 1985 (and I believe this book has been reissued at least once). Both books can be found very reasonably (for less than they were originally published for) in very good condition. Along with my Sister Wendy books, they are the foundations of my Art library.

Another book that’s very relevant to this discussion, and has been essential for me- one I don’t see recommended nearly often enough, is Believing Is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography) by the renowned Errol Morris. 

My prior pieces on PhotoBooks are here. 

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. You can still visit the beautiful, large, expensive house he bought at Jodenbreestraat 4, in Amsterdam. ↩
  2. Excuse me for seeing a lesson for today’s Art world in this, but I do. If this could happen to one of the greatest Artists who ever lived? It can happen to anyone. ↩
  3. The Wallfar-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany is having a show of Rembrandt’s Graphic Work that opens on, yes, October 4, 2019. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, is hosting a Rembrandt-Velazquez show that opens a week later. ↩
  4. Gary Schwartz says there are some documents that raise the possibility that Rembrandt may have actually been born in 1605 or 1607  (Gary Schwartz, The Rembrandt Book, P.15). I don’t think a year on either side of 2106 is going to make a difference regarding my being around to see it. ↩
  5. My one caveat being that they chose to reproduce only the detail of the early works in which RvR Painted himself as an onlooker in a crowd, denying the viewer the full context and setting. ↩
  6. I consider the incomparable 1980 Picasso Retrospective at MoMA the real beginning of my “looking career” at shows. Looking at Art books predates that by about a decade. ↩
  7. The Americans was first published in 1958 in France by Robert Delpire, and in 1959 by Grove Press in the USA. ↩
  8. //iphf.org/inductees/sir-john-frederick-william-herschel/ ↩
  9. Who, in addition to being a world-famous Painter, has also authored two important books on Art & Art History- Secret Knowledge and A History of Pictures ↩
  10. David Hockney, Something New Exhibition Catalog, 2018, P.6 ↩
  11. David Hockney, Something New Exhibition Catalog, 2018, P.5 ↩
  12. Afterall, what we have in Rembrandt: The Self-Portraits, and every other mass produced book of Paintings, are Photographs of Paintings. ↩
  13. For much more on how Daido Moriyama feels about whether Photography is Art, see P.205-6 in the chapter titled “The Real Daido Moriyama,” in this same book, How I Take Photographs. ↩

At The Photography Show, 2019: The Galleries

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

I love The Photography Show.

AIPAD, 2019, stretches as far as the eye can see- in all directions. There’s A LOT to see, and I’m here to see ALL of it. The view early Saturday afternoon, April 6, 2019. My thanks to DeShawn for his assistance with this shot. Click any picture for full size.

After all, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, who present it, and I, have a core value in common- a passion for Fine Art Photography.

The Photography Show entrance at Pier 94 on the Hudson River, April 7, 2019.

More commonly referred to as AIPAD (as I will henceforth), the show is the only chance all year in NYC for a large segment of the Fine Art Photography world here, or able to get here, to get together. That alone makes it a must attend event for anyone involved in Photography, for anyone interested in seeing the widest range of Fine Art Photographs presented in one place at one time in town all year long, and for anyone looking for something to hang on their wall that they will want to keep looking at indefinitely.

And? AIPAD is so B I G, there really is something for every taste hanging inside Pier 94.

In 2019, the show was noticeably smaller, though, as you can see, it was still plenty large enough that it really required at least two visits to see all of it, and that’s not counting  the AIPAD Talks (which included Dawoud Bey, Sarah Greenough, Stephen Shore, and Harry Benson, separately, this year), Aperture’s Photobook Showcase, and various book signings and Photographer booth visits, which were ongoing over the weekend. If you wanted to take in some or all of those, too, attendance for the full five day run was the only way. Taking my own advice, over my five long days of attendance, I believe I saw all of it, though I was so busy with the gallery and PhotoBook areas I missed all the talks this year, much to my chagrin.

I love the smell of freshly hung Photographs in the morning.

For me, and I think for most other visitors, no matter how many Photographers you’re familiar with? You’re guaranteed to add a few new names to your list- and “new names” has nothing to do with their age.

The legendary Danny Lyon, subject of a solo retrospective at The Whitney Museum in 2017, takes a break during his book signing on Saturday, April 6th at Etherton Gallery’s booth in front of a collage he created between 2016 and 2018.

Most of all? I love getting to see and meet Photographers. Maybe even get a book signed. After all? If it wasn’t for the Photographers? There’d be no show. 

The closing day crowd at SoPhoto Gallery’s booth, who came all the way from Beijing, China, to show Yaqiang Chen.

In the gallery booths, the range and variety of work on view was the best thing about the show. As I was in 2017 and 2018, I was most impressed by the displays of Photographers not as well known in NYC, or in the USA for that matter, as they are elsewhere shown by galleries who traveled long distances to attend, like SoPhoto and PeterFetterman Galleries.

8 evocative Untitled works by Noell Oszvald, a Hungarian Photographer still in his 20’s, seen at Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.

Others paid homage to the host City with classic reminders of our Photographic past.

All the way from Munich, Germany, Galerie f5.6 brought beautiful and interesting work, as well as these two classic slices of vintage NYC from one of its favorite sons, Saul Leiter.

The NYC Galleries were also in the house, of course, and well represented by long standing big names like Laurence Miller Gallery-

Ray K. Metzker’s extraordinary Nude, 1966-74, one of his legendary Composites highlighted his long time dealer, Laurence Miller Gallery’s, presentation.

Howard Greenberg Gallery-

Dave Heath, a new discovery for me in 2019, who quickly became one of my favorites for his powerful, poingent portraits and his superb printing. Seen here at Howard Greenberg.

Edwynn Houk Gallery-

A gorgeous Sally Mann portrait, Virgina #42, 2004 flanked by The Trombone Player #6, 2018, by Paolo Ventura, left, and American Dream, Self-Portrait with Alex, 2018, by Erwin Olaf at NYC’s Edwynn Houk Gallery.

Yancey Richardson Gallery-

Zanele Muholi beautifully filled all of Yancey Richardson Gallery’s space.

Bruce Silverstein-

Rosalind Fox Solomon, Selected Photographs, 1975-2011, featuring a number of images from her recent MACK Book, Liberty Theater, which made my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018, list. Ms. Solomon and Dawoud Bey were announced as winners of the ICP 2019 Infinity Award in February. Seen at Bruce Silverstein.

and newer names, including Elizabeth Houston Gallery-

Nico Krijno at Elizabeth Houson Gallery.

who displayed a fascinating group of pieces by the talented and versatile Nico Krijno.

Dawoud Bey, Untitled #17 (Forest), from Night Coming Tenderly, Black, 2017, at, and *Photo courtesy of, Stephen Daiter Gallery

But, the consensus “hit” of the show, from all those I spoke with- Photographers, publishers, visitors and other gallerists, was undoubtedly the the work of Dawoud Bey shown by Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago. The group of new landscapes from his Night Coming Tenderly, Black, series based on an imagining of the flight of passage along the Underground Railroad, were singled out more than anything else on view by those I spoke with, and his group of four portraits dating from 1989-90 were almost as frequently mentioned. This continues the recent overdue attention given to this 40 year veteran Photographer’s work, along with the concurrent show at the Art Institute of Chicago of 25 works from Night Coming Tenderly, Black, and the February announcement of Mr. Bey as a recipient of the 2019 International Center of Photography Infinity Award.

Portraits by Dawoud Bey, from left to right, Young Man at a Tent Revival, 1989, A Woman at Fulton Street and Washington Avenue, 1989, Couple in Prospect Park, 1990, and A Girl With A Kinfe Nosepin, 1990, at Stephen Daiter Gallery. 

As mentioned earlier, Etherton Gallery devoted their main space to a mini-retrospective of the work of Danny Lyon, titled Danny Lyon: For the Record. 

On view were works from all of his most well-known series, The Bikeriders and Conversations With the Dead, and The Destruction of Lower Manhattan.

Along side others not as well-known

Two works that hint at the range of Danny Lyon over what has been a long and acclaimed career.

Monroe Gallery, returned to us from Sante Fe, New Mexico, showing the work of Tony Vaccaro, graced by the presence of the Dean of all Photographers once again, looking as spry as ever at NINETY-SEVEN! (Tony, WHAT’S your secret??)

97 years young, Tony Vaccaro sits in front of a wall of his historic work at Monroe Gallery on April 6th. Off frame, to the left, he and I are surrounded by a crowd filling the space to see & hear the legend, who I had the honor of speaking with last year.

As joyful as it always is to see Mr. Vaccaro, the discovery for me at Monroe Gallery was the work of independent Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions.

Ryan Vizzions, Protestors face off with police and the National Guard on February 1, 2017, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, 2017. *Courtesy Ryan Vizzions.

I happened to walk into Monroe Gallery’s booth when Mr. Vizzions was there signing his brand new PhotoBook, No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement and discussing both the work on view and his background, both of which held me rapt. Shortly after his father’s passing, he quit his job and armed with a Nikon D3300, he headed west to document the Standing Rock Protests, one of the largest in American History, taking place at Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota from April, 2016 to March, 2017. After an initial 3 week visit to Oceti Sakowin camp, he was so taken with what he found that he went home, sold everything and headed back. He stayed from late October through the winter and came away with an amazing body of work that, in my opinion, follows right in the footstep of the finest tradition of PhotoJournalism.

Ryan Vizzions poses in front of a selection of his powerful work at Monroe Gallery’s booth at AIPAD on April 6, 2019.

I subsequently found that I’m far from the only one taken by this young man’s work. Ryan has already won multiple “Photo of the Year” Awards- in 2016 from People, Artsy.net, and Mic.com. In 2017, from the Guardian and ABC News. He’s also had his life threatened. Now, he’s represented by Monroe Gallery. More on Ryan and his story, here. Ryan’s book, No Spiritual Surrender: A Dedication to the Standing Rock Movement  is highly recommended.

Elsewhere around the show, here are some other highlights-

Mary McCartney, Tracey Emin as Frida Kahlo, London, 2000, seen at Staley Wise Gallery

A selection of classic Henri Cariter-Bresson prints seen at Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London, UK.

Brian Clamp, the tall gentleman, center, seen at his ClampArt booth, showing cutting edge work, as usual.

One of the leading Photography gallerists in the South, Atlanta’s Arnika Dawkins, left, of Arnika Dawkins Gallery Photographic Fine Art, presented one of her latest finds, Ervin A. Johnson’s mixed media portraits, and Jeanine Michna-Bales, who I featured in an AIPAD Discoveries piece last year.

Imogen Cunningham Agave Design 1, 1920. Seen at Edwynn Houk Gallery.

Installation view- A Room for Solace: An Exhibition of Domestic Interiors Curated by Alec Soth

A discussion of highlights has to include the exhibition curated by world renowned Magnum Photographer Alec Soth, fresh off the release of his newest book, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating, and the opening of his solo show of the same work at Sean Kelly Gallery.

This section consists of Wayne F. Miller, Rebecca Norris Webb (who’s married to Alex Webb) and Harry Callahan, left to right.

Mikael Levin, Onus, 2000, Sirkka Liisa Konttinen, Emma Dowds (Step by Step series), 1982, Unknown, Interior of an American Home, c.1900, Marie Cosindas, Sailors Key West, 1966, Bill Owens, We’re really happy, 1972, from Suburbia, Walker Evans Kitchen in Floyd Burrough’s Home, Hale County, Alabama, 1936

Osamu James Nakagawa, Curtain, Tokyo, Spring, 2003, From the series Kai

Mr. Soth selected a fascinating variety of Photographs around the theme, A Room for Solace: An Exhibition of Domestic Interiors. His selections  from the galleries attending the show was continually fresh and surprising, made all the more fascinating in his carefully considered hanging. Couches and tables in the space added a “homey” touch, but most of all, I was excited to see a Photographer have a chance to select and lay out at least one section of AIPAD, and Alec Soth did a terrific job, in my opinion.

Observations-

I really can’t say that over the five days in the gallery section, I heard any complaints. The only issue seemed to be with the carpeting in the booths, which was lumpy in places throughout the show, and seemed to be a bit tricky for those wearing certain types of shoes. I witnessed one stumble that could have been disastrous (for the visitor and the Art), except for a quick extended hand keeping a stumble from being a fall. Outside of that, the only question I heard more than once, and I heard it each day, was where “Where can I get coffee?” (The only spot I found was in the very back, behind the publishers.) Those minor issues aside, I think it’s safe to say that AIPAD was a well-run machine this year and that any issues from prior years were addressed for this year’s edition (this, the opinion of some returning booth holders I spoke with, and some I pointed out in the past). The staff was friendly, cordial yet focused, and professional throughout, regardless of the role they had. Security was exceedingly well handled, from a visitor’s perspective, both entering and leaving the show. I didn’t encounter anyone who had an issue with a staff member throughout the run of the show.

Of course, the biggest issue remains Pier 94, itself. It’s in one of the least convenient areas of mid-town Manhattan, barely serviced by mass transit, which makes it hard to get to, or leave, particularly in any kind of inclemency. Here’s one esteemed visitor’s experience getting there this year. My feeling is this must cut down on attendance dramatically. Perhaps 33 to 50%? Of course that needs to be weighed versus the added cost and size limitations of a different location, something I have no doubt has been considered long and hard. When I asked a variety of those I encountered about the location, all agreed about its inconvenience, but none were willing to sacrifice the size for convenience. I agree with them.

In conclusion-

Any piece such as this can only hope to show only a sample of the many thousands of Photographs on display. The work on view was only a portion of what the galleries actually brought to the show- a good number brought a fair amount of stock with them that wasn’t actually hanging on the walls as well. As I walked through the galleries each day, it seemed to me the attendance was steady and the galleries were busy. From the telling “red dots” I saw on name cards, and from the wrapped pieces I saw being carried out, my sense was that business was as good as it was last year. Prices seemed to have edged up, particularly for the “big names” in Modern & Contemporary Photography, but there was plenty of work I saw by Photographers who are well known today that were to be had at quite affordable prices, (and almost all of it was in signed & numbered editions this year, after seeing a number of open editions in prior years).

Alec Soth chose to end his show with Fred Herzog’s My Room, Harwood Street, 1958, a work that has special resonance for me. After seeing the display of his work at Equinox Gallery’s booth, I bought my Fred Herzog at AIPAD in 2017.

Considering the length of the history of Photography, the increasing international exposure for Photographers from all over the world by galleries, PhotoBooks, and the internet, the range and the quantity of Fine Art Photographs available for sale has never been greater. The Photography Show was a terrific opportunity to see a good deal of it in one place, to learn more about Photographers you’re interested in and discover new ones, to see how the work of different Photographers looks hanging side by side, to compare prices, and to walk away with something new to hang on your walls.

And I have.

For the third year in a row, I’m pleased to present extensive coverage of The Photography Show presented by AIPAD. As I did in 2017 and 2018, this will include a portfolio of pieces, each focused on a segment of the show. The next part looks at the PhotoBook Publishers, Book Dealers and Organizations area. Two subsequent pieces consist of an “AIPAD Focus” close up look at a leading light in Photography, and at least one (and I am hoping two) AIPAD Discovery piece(s), reprising a popular feature I inaugurated last year, that will focus on a particularly NoteWorthy Photographer previously not known to me. Hopefully, two. Stay tuned!

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Take Me To The River” by Al Green.

My thanks to Margery Newman. 

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

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

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