BookMarks

Inside Kris Graves Projects’ Monumental LOST II

Written by Kenn Sava. Photos by Kenn Sava & Kris Graves Projects

Slipcase Cover for the newly announced 20 volume set, LOST II. Click any Photo for full size.

Kris Graves, and his publishing company, Kris Graves Projects (+KGP), shocked many in the Photography and PhotoBook world when he released the ten-volume set, LOST, almost exactly a year ago. The shock at its size quickly turned to admiration once the quality of the individual books it included set in. I was as impressed by the overall vision that unified the project across those 10 books as I was the work of each of the 10 Photographers it included. Alphabetically by city, LOST consisted of-

The covers of the 10 volumes of LOST, 2018

–Beijing by Lois Conner
–Berlin by Andreas Gehrke
–Boston by Michael Cardinali
–Calcutta by Laura McPhee
–Chicago by Owen Conway
–Long Island City by Kris Graves
–New York by Lynn Saville
–Omaha by Zora J Murff
–San Francisco by Luke Abiol
-and Seattle by Joseph P. Traina

Then, there was the daring of a company that’s not yet one of the “big names” in the PhotoBook world (let alone possessing their resources) the set represented. That +KGP marshalled the wherewithal to pull off such a set was equally stunning. LOST made my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2018 list, and probably some others, for all of these reasons. As memorable as it was and remains, even it didn’t prepare me for the news that Kris Graves Projects was about to release LOST II- consisting of TWENTY VOLUMES! Shaking my head in wonder, this time I was determined to find out- “HOW do they do it?”

I reached out to some of the Artists involved, and I visited Kris Graves at his Long Island City studio, where I found him hard at work putting the finishing touches on the set that he was about to send off to Spain to be printed, under the watchful eyes of +KGP team member, Pablo Lerma.

LOST II Slipcase cover verso.

As a result, this piece marks the first time I’m writing about books I haven’t physically seen. Even without having books in hand, from everything I have seen thus far, it’s apparent to me that LOST II is going to be nothing short of monumental, in ways beyond its 7 1/2 pound size (for the full set in its heavy duty slipcase). For one thing, it’s already apparent that, it’s different from LOST, and that’s as it should be. After all, LOST already stands on its own- why repeat it?  This time, it seems less about the place, per se, and more directly involved in what it’s like for the people who actually live in it. Tough no place is revisited, the basic premise remains- Each of the, now twenty, Photographers contributes a book of Photographs taken in one city around the world. LOST II will include-

The covers of LOST II. Top row, from left-Washington DC, Birmingham, The Bronx,  Colorado City. Row 2- Crow Country, Hong Kong, Illinois Central, Lagos. Row 3- Lentini, London, Los Angeles, New Zealand. Row 4- Ossining, Philadelphia, Spruce Pine, Syracuse. Row 5- Tijuana, Toronto, Uzhhorod, and Viterbo

A link to a preview of each book is included in the list, below-

–Birmingham by Shawn Theodore
–The Bronx by Kris Graves
–Colorado City by Steven B. Smith
–Crow Country by Wendy Red Star
–Hong Kong by Nelson Chan
–Illinois Central by Tim Carpenter
–Lagos by Isaac Diggs
–Lentini by Andrea Modica
–London by Sergio A. Fernandez
–Los Angeles by Aline Smithson
–New Zealand by Young Sohn
–Ossining by Giovanni Urgelles
–Philadelphia by Saleem Ahmed
–Spruce Pine by Mercedes Jelinek
–Syracuse by Shane Lavalette
–Tijuana by Griselda San Martin
–Toronto by Zun Lee
–Uzhhorod by Jules Slutsky
–Viterbo by Cristina Velasquez
–Washington DC by Jared Soares

Even though LOST II is BIG, I can feel the world getting smaller. I’ll explain. First a quick recap by way of providing some background for those wondering what it’s all about…

Kris Graves, 4 works from A Bleak Reality, 2018, +KGP

Kris Graves and his work were introduced to me when I came across four of his Photographs in the All Power: Legacies of the Black Panther Party Exhibition, memorably curated by Michelle Dunn Marsh at The Photography Show (AIPAD) in April, 2018. The work, a series taken at the locations where young black men were murdered by police (since published in his book, A Bleak Reality,+KGP, 2018), stopped me cold. Enquiring at the show’s info desk I discovered that Mr. Graves was ALSO a publisher AND he had a table in the book section.

Kris Graves holds a set of LOST, with its individual component volumes displayed in front of him, at the Kris Graves Project table at AIPAD, April, 2018.

Walking over, indeed, there he was. After “Hellos,” I saw the newly announced 10 volumes of his then latest project, LOST, displayed in front of him. Perusing them, as accomplished as his Photography is, I was equally shocked to discover the quality of the books he published. I subsequently wrote about the experience here. One year into following both his own work and the books +KGP has produced my respect and admiration has continued to grow. I went to the LOST book release party shortly after AIPAD, where I met some of the Artists included in the series and bought my own set. LOST quickly sold out and is now something of an Urban PhotoBook Legend given how often I hear it referred to.

Kris Graves hard at work while talking (and selecting tasty vinyl from his impressive Lp collection), finishing up LOST II before sending it off to be printed in Spain on February 13, 2019.

Curious about how these bodies of work came about, I asked Kris if they were work that the Artists coincidentally happened to have on hand, or if any created them based on discussions with him for LOST II? He said, “I have interest in cities in general and I am always interested in seeing a new place through a strong artist’s point of view. Many of the chosen artists call a few places home, and they had the freedom to show me any work they felt made a good series. Some artists made new work for the project, which is flattering. Most artists have been working on these series’ for a long time, even decades. All of the artists have had the freedom to create these projects. I help with some sequencing suggestions and layout. These are editioned art pieces.” On LOST II’s roster, he added, “…this list of artists is stellar and I am humbled that they trusted me and the project. I’m still in the heart of it and can’t choose a project over another. I can say that Steven B. Smith’s project Colorado City is going to raise some eyebrows and Andrea Modica’s Lentini and the 8 x 10″ view camera work within makes me with these books could be larger in size. And to keep it ultra-real, I keep the project Purchase College strong with the monographs Ossining by Giovanni Urgelles, Uzhhorod by Jules Slutsky, and Spruce Pine by Mercedes Jelinek. I can’t wait for you to see these, I am excited to even talk about them.”

A lovely, early, +KGP promo image for LOST II, now lost, itself. I think it fell into that sink hole in front of the tree.

When I last spoke to Kris about it this past fall, LOST II consisted of nine books with an open call being held to choose an Artist for slot 10. I asked him how the project grew from 10 to 20 books. “I decided sleep wasn’t important. I wanted to cover more ground and also realized that I had more than ten artists in mind that I wanted to work with immediately. Twenty unique projects means we get to cover more of the world.” That made me wonder about the “secret sauce” he uses to determine exactly who and where is going to be in LOST II. So, I asked him- As the publisher, and creative lead on these projects- Do you start with a “hit list” of places you’d like to include, is it more based on available bodies of work by Artists you’d like to include, or a serendipitous mix of the two? He said, “It is a mix of the two but never evenly. I have some talented colleagues and I simply ask people if they wanted to take part. A few got at me to show me work in the last year, and we’ve worked together to make the projects.”

Cover of Viterbo, by Cristina Velasquez. Viterbo is in Columbia.

This has led to one of the things that made LOST memorable and special- its blend of well known and not as well known Artists seamlessly side by side. It’s a testament to LOST, and Kris, that LOST II is something Artists want to be a part of. I learned that no less than 150 submitted portfolios for that open call for that final slot in LOST II! Cristina Velasquez was chosen (by Hamidah Glasgow, Director of the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Mr. Graves pointed out to me), and her book, Viterbo, will leave no doubt why. I reached out to Cristina to congratulate her, and ask about its creation. She said, “Viterbo is a town in the mountains of Colombia where my family and I spent most of our childhood. It is also a generous, infinite studio, where I am able to compose freely and make pictures of the things that I care about, the real and the imagined. By referencing this location, my aim is not to indicate the origin of the pictures or to represent the place in any way. This book is a tribute to its people and to the everyday struggles of working-class families that resist and find joy in the midst of informality and precarious forms of labor. It is also a love letter to my childhood days and memories from Viterbo —the streets, the mountains, the stories—. Their imprint will forever infuse my artwork and the way I experience the world with a sense of dignity, absurdity, and joyous colour.”

“In Syracuse, New York, Interstate 81 separates those who live on the right side of town from those who do not,” per Arthur Flowers in TOPIC. Shane Lavelette’s, Syracuse, who’s cover is seen here, looks at the lives effected.

Among those joining Ms. Velasquez, is Shane Lavelette, the Director of the non-profit, Light Work, one of the country’s most respected Photo organizations, and an accomplished Photographer in his own right, who contributes the haunting Syracuse, his first book solely in black & white. I asked Mr. Lavelette how this body of work came to be, and came to be part of LOST II. He said Syracuse “began as an editorial piece for TOPIC (which can be read here). Since then, the spring of 2017, I’ve continued photographing for this body of work, as the issues/conversation around the highway develops. Essentially, the project explores the ways in which decisions of urban planning can connect or divide communities and the voices that are represented or lost in the process. Kris asked me to be a part of LOST II and I was originally exploring another idea for the publication but returned to this work because I think there’s an urgency to this story. I’m working with him to produce some extra copies of the book, which can be distributed for free to the local community. I don’t believe my own view/voice is very important in this work, but the project is one way to try to use an artistic project as an agent for dialogue in various contexts.”

He’s being modest. Syracuse, is stunningly beautiful and poetic, and is sure to impact all who see it. While this is an issue looming large in Syracuse right now, the bigger question it asks is- In how many other places is this same thing going on?

In that sense, it presents what seems to me to be one of the “themes” of LOST II as a set- revealing national, even, global issues in 2019 from a local perspective, consciously or subconsciously, as also witnessed in Crow Country by Wendy Red Star, Birmingham, by Shawn Theodore or Uzhhorod by Jules Slutsky. Perhaps, nowhere else in the set, is this more apparent than in Tijuana by Griselda San Martin.

The cover of Tijuana by Griselda San Martin.

Griselda San Martin is a Spanish Documentary Photographer who’s work in Tijuana seems to encapsulate a number of the series she has been working on, each of which a part of her mission statement- “My goal is to represent the immigration issue in all of its complexity, addressing the social, political and economic factors that motivate individuals to leave their homes. I hope to create images that stimulate dialogue and reflection1.” Her work is often up close and personal, yet, she’s equally adroit at stepping back to show the bigger picture. All of this is beautifully rendered in Tijuana, where her twin gifts with color and light are apparent in every image. The documentary elements, as seen on the cover, are powerful and poignant, but the book contains a variety of styles, some more commonly seen in Fine Art Photography, showing off the range of her talent, while keeping Tijuana fresh.

Griselda San Martin, from Tijuana.

About Tijuana, she said- “Contrary to what we are shown in mainstream media, Tijuana is a fascinating place,” she said. “All we hear right now about Tijuana has something to do with the several migrant caravans and Central American immigrants who have arrived in the city during the past few months. My book has nothing to do with that. All the images were taken before the first caravan arrived. The first time I was in Tijuana was during my graduate studies at the school of journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. My graduation project led me to this border city, where I was captivated by its culture and dynamics, and the complexities (and contradictions) of the border region. For the past six years, I have been going back for different periods of time, working on several projects. Perhaps the most successful one has been The Wall, a photography and video project that documents families separated by their immigration status, who gather at Friendship Park, the only federally established  binational meeting place (currently closed). Through photographs and a short documentary film, the project examines the concept and relevance of a border wall, border security, and the effects of immigration policies on individuals and families affected by them, during a time of rising xenophobic political tensions. I also documented the small but growing Muslim community in the border region.” How did it become part of LOST II? “I met Kris Graves a couple of years ago. We were part of a group exhibition at CPW (Center for Photography at Woodstock). He contacted me directly to invite me to be part of Lost II.”

Along with all of this, many of the books are also equally personal.

The cover of Hong Kong by Nelson Chan perfectly captures the mood of its contents.

Take Hong Kong, where Photographer, TIS Books co-founder/co-publisher, and Aperture Foundation staff member, Nelson Chan, has spent quite a bit of his life. “The book came to be quite naturally,” he said. “I grew up in Hong Kong and live there during various parts of the year while I’m overseas printing books for the Aperture Foundation. A lot of the images were made during these travels. Kris knew I photographed in Hong Kong quite a lot and simply asked me if I wanted to take part in his project. I was emphatic about it from the start. One of the things that I did with this book that was a bit unexpected for me was that I actually combine some black and white negatives from some of the very first photos I ever took. Not just in Hong Kong, but as a young budding photographer. You see, the city was what sparked that interest in putting a camera to my eye.” Joining Nelson is his TIS Books partner, Tim Carpenter, who contributes Illinois Central to LOST II. (By the way, TIS Books also made my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2018 list with El Libro Supremo De La Suerte, by Rose Marie Cromwell.)

Cover of Spruce Pine by Mercedes Jelinek

Then there is Spruce Pine by Mercedes Jelinek, which offers an almost meditative approach, sans people, which, I believe, may be  the only book in the set to do so. It’s her eagerly awaited second book after her sold out debut, the powerful, These Americans, (+KGP, 2018). Though its meditative quiet couldn’t be more different in tone from the raucous These Americans, revealing another side of her range, it retains the depth of feeling, even without human subjects. I asked Mercedes how Spruce Pine came to be, and came to be part of LOST II. “I was a resident artist at Penland School of Craft in Penland NC (right next to Spruce Pine),” she said. “Over the three years I lived there, I would go out and explore the area – going down back roads and side roads until I would reach a dead end. I realized I seemed to gravitate towards photographing quiet scenes – something I don’t usually have where I’m from in NYC. Not necessarily boring or mundane scenes but more of absence- and I was attracted to it in the photos… If that makes sense. Over time it grew into a project. Kris Graves Projects published my first book. When I returned to NY, I showed Kris my Spruce Pine images and he invited me to be part of Lost II.”

Kris Graves hosting the +KGP Book release for Isaac Diggs/Mikhail Mishin Book Release

On February 22nd, +KGP held a book release & signing for their three newest releases- Isaac Diggs’ Middle Distance,  Mikhail Mishin’s Endless Bridge, and Rana Young’s The Rug’s Typography, with the first two Artists in attendance.

Photographer & educator Isaac Diggs introduces his brand new PhotoBook, Middle Distance on February 22nd. He should be smiling- It’s very good. His Photographs of Los Angeles, “conjure the underlying tension I sense in much of the American urban landscape,” he says on the +KGP site.

I took the opportunity to meet Isaac Diggs, the well-known Photographer and educator at NYC’s School of Visual Arts the past 19 years, and speak to him about how his book, Lagos, in LOST II, came about. He told me that he’s made a dozen trips to Nigeria, his wife’s homeland, since the mid-1990s, with the book consisting of work created during the last half dozen trips. The focus throughout is on the daily lives of its subjects through unexpected glimpses into them. It’s a book that reveals a diversity of lives being lived in views at once close up, and again expansive, in a city that few in this country are familiar with.

Mr. Diggs personalizing a copy of Middle Distance.

I also perused Middle Distance, which is as exceedingly well done Photographically as it is well produced, again with images taken over time, this time in California. Thinking about it and Lagos, I see the same eye in both books-it’s an eye that works very quickly and very quietly. In photo after photo images are captured while the subject, who’s often close by, does not even appear to know there’s a camera pointed at them which captures them spontaneously, while the background and the entire composition has a carefully considered feel. Mr. Diggs also has a talent for interesting/unusal fleeting moment. Not the “waited for moment” we see wonderfully in the work of, say, Harry Gruyaert or Alex Webb, Mr. Diggs’ moments feel like they required a fast shutter speed to capture, though it was probably his quick mind.

Sharing the book release with Mr. Diggs was Mikhail Mishin, who told me his new book, Endless Bridge, began by culling through his scrapbooks. Looking through it, I then asked him if Kazimir Malevich was an influence. He smiled, and then responded with this photo-op, which could have been a page right out of his book!

Mikhail Mishin demonstrates the influence of Malevich on his work. The first word in red on the left hand facing page happens to be “Malevich” in Russian.

Though he’s not one of the LOST II Artists, I asked Mikhail what his experience was like having his book published by Kris Graves Projects. “Producing the book with Kris was pretty seamless and pleasant experience and he has an excellent knowledge of, and insight into, the art book industry and in the art world,” he said. “I had my book dummy designed and printed before I was introduced to Kris by our mutual friend. After our initial meeting and discussion Kris was interested in producing this book and we started the process.”

Mikhail Mishin with Endless Bridge, February 22, 2019.

“We had a few sessions after when we discussed edition, choosing the press, paper quality, the cover design and so on. All of that went very smooth as Kris already had pretty good idea where and what to do. Soon after we finalized the files and sent to press in New Hampshire which did a very nice job as you could see in the result.”

While the Isaac Diggs/Mikhail Mishin Book Release was going on, Kris Graves was also checking in on the printing of LOST II happening at that very moment(!) in Spain. February 22, 2019.

Meanwhile, back on the LOST II front, while the book release was going on, Mr. Graves was multi-tasking as ever, checking in on the progress of the printing of LOST II on his phone, which was going on in Spain at that very moment(!) …

As he posted on Instagram shortly thereafter. Seen here are images from Wendy Red Star’s highly anticipated Crow Country hot off the press. Her show, A Scratch on the Earth, is now open at the Newark Museum.

where Kris Graves Projects’ Pablo Lerma was onsite in Barcelona pulling a 16 hour day overseeing the printing of ALL 20 books!

Kris Grave & Eric Hairabedian’s A Queens Affiar, 2010, Kris Graves’ first book, which includes an outline map inside.

Speaking of the bookmaking side, in thinking about the evolution of LOST and LOST II, I was struck when I recently saw a copy of Kris Graves’ first PhotoBook- A Queens Affair, 2010, in which his exterior Photos are wonderfully paired with interiors by Eric Hairabedian. The book has something of the feel of a precursor of LOST, in its unique, capsule, exploration of the borough, right down to the inclusion of an outline map, a staple of LOST & LOST II.

Kris Graves with Eric Hairabedian, February 22, 2019- nine years after they made A Queens Story. His relationships and his network, also, play a part in the success of +KGP and the LOST series.

In the succeeding 9 years, Kris’ publishing has come a long way. I asked him how his bookmaking has changed just between LOST and LOST II. “I produced LOST with a digital offset printer in New Jersey,” he told me. “We loved the quality, and are using those materials for other books. This time, we are working with a press in Barcelona, and making the books in offset, not digital. In addition to the slightly larger size, the books will now be able to be opened further, so book spreads will look a bit better. Since we want to make a better project every time we make a book, we also wanted to splurge on a more expensive process for LOST II. Printing of the books is now complete, the down payment is in (smiles), and the books should set sail from Barca in a week or so, just in time for their AIPAD launch.”

It’s been apparent to me this past year that one of the most remarkable thing about +KGP’s books is their high quality and quite reasonable cost. While a set of the 20 volumes of LOST II is (currently) 350.00, the individual books have a price of 28.00 each. Though his books are affordable, the quality of the work they contain has been noticed at very high levels.  LOST was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among other esteemed institutions. I asked Kris what he was most proud of about its success. “Good question. I am proud that this group of artists works as hard as they do. That’s it. Getting into collections is gravy, maybe it means that someone will peep the series 150 years from now. That would be cool. Usually, I’m too busy to feel pride.”

Luckily, we the living won’t have to wait long to see LOST II. It debuts at The Photography Show, 2019 (AIPAD) in early April, where it will be available to the general public, accompanied by a book signing.

However if you’re a Photographer interested in getting a slot in LOST III? I learned it’s going to require a very special distinction- You have to be female.

BookMarks-

Some facts about LOST II known to me as I write-

First- Less than SIXTY complete sets, in a custom LOST II Slip case, were available when it was announced. I bought one. And no, I didn’t ask for, or get a discount. Why not? Let’s do some math. The complete set of LOST II is being released at $350.00- a quite sizable sum by any standards. Considering there’s 20 books in the set? That makes it $17.50 a book, with a free slipcase. For a first rate PhotoBook? That’s on the low end (if not at the very bottom) of the prices I see charged by ANY publisher in the world. Besides that compelling reason, I believe in supporting Artists doing great and/or important work, so they can make more of it.

Second- Regarding individual book sales, Kris told me there will be just 125 first edition/first printing copies available of each title! When you take a look through the +KGP site, you’ll notice the high percentage of recent titles marked “SOLD OUT,” so part of the reason I’m doing this piece is as a community service for my readers who have read my prior Kris Graves Posts, and/or have bought LOST, so they can get LOST II, if they wish, as well as providing some insights into how a unique series like this comes into being.

Third- LOST II is available for pre-order from Kris Graves Projects online here. In the time it’s taken to prepare this Post, I now believe no more than 30 sets are still available. ALSO! I’m pleased to mention that if you mention “Kenn Sava” when you order a set from +KGP, your order will include a signed copy of Kris Graves’ The Bronx. 

Besides LOST II, also recommended are Isaac Diggs just released book, Middle Distance, and be sure to check out Mikhail Mishin’s fascinating new book, Endless Bridge, both of which were moving quickly at the book release.

Finally, a tip- I saw Mercedes Jelinek’s powerful first PhotoBook, These Americans, at AIPAD last year on the +KGP table I showed earlier. While I was busy looking at something else, the last copy was sold. After spending the last year looking for it, I’m happy to report that I just found out that a few copies are STILL AVAILABLE, here, at the Asheville Art Museum! Mine came signed. Highly recommended.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “The National Anthem” by Radiohead (a band Kris and I both admire) from Kid A, performed here (with horns!) on Later–

My thanks to Shane Lavalette, Nelson Chan, Isaac Diggs, Mercedes Jelinek, Cristina Velasquez, Mikhail Mishin, Griselda San Martin, the Asheville Art Museum, and Kris Graves. 

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  1. She said, here ↩

Stanley Kubrick: A Photographer’s Odyssey

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

At first, I was surprised to hear that Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs  was at the Museum of the City of New York, a first rate institution, though one that doesn’t often show up on my schedule of Art or Photography shows. Yes, Stanley Kubrick was born and raised in the Bronx, so as one of  NYC’s great native sons, it makes historical sense. It turns out it made perfect sense artistically as well. The MCNY is home of part of the Look Magazine Archives. Stanley Kubrick sold Photographs to, and later became a staff Photographer for, the popular Look Magazine from April, 1945 until August, 1950.

“Open the Pod Bay Doors, Stanley.” Click any Photo for full size.

The majority of Look Magazine’s Photo Archives (5,000,000 Photographs) were donated to the Library of Congress. However, those relating to NYC were donated to the Museum of the City of New York. These include approximately 12,000 contact prints, and negatives Stanley Kubrick created for Look over 129 NYC assignments1, the vast majority of them have never been published.

The eyes of a genius. The show’s entrance features this haunting Photograph by Stanley Kubrick in which he shoots himself and the “Showgirl” Rosemary Williams reflected in her large tabletop mirror. The Photo, Stanley Kubrick taking a picture of Rosemary Williams applying lipstick, which is cropped on the sign, is from the unpublished story, “Rosemary Williams- Showgirl,” March, 1949.

Also from the same story, Rosemary Williams Applies Lipstick, March, 1949, a companion piece to the shot above. Stanley was 19 when he took these. I’ve seen the look he has on his face in these two shots in other pictures of Stanley Kubrick, and each time its caption includes the descriptive “intense concentration.” For a number of reasons, this may be the most remarkable Photograph I’ve seen thus far in this body of his work. I picture him having that look as he took every shot in this show.

Stanley Kubrick remains a magnificent mystery to me, akin to the monolith in his classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. His films (all 13 of them) are high on my list of favorites. I can think of no other Director I revere as highly as Stanley Kubrick, other than Charlie Chaplin2. Yet, it’s still not all that well known that before he became a Director, Stanley Kubrick was a professional Photographer. Remarkably, he was 17 years old when he sold his first Photograph to Look Magazine, then one of the most popular magazines in the country, in 1945. Hmmm…who was the last Photographer I wrote about who achieved recognition that mature Photographers yearn for their whole lives at 17? Stephen Shore was 17 when he sold his first Photo to MoMA.

New to this body of his work, I went to see the 130 of his Photographs (though there was no indication, these appeared to be exclusively recent digital prints, not silver gelatin prints) on view in the show to get a sense of SK- the Photographer, but primarily, I went specifically looking for evidence of the later, mature genius Film Director. I found it. It just wasn’t how I was expecting to find it. I’ve seen a number of comments online from people who find these shots “banal,” and terms connoting similar degrees of a tepid response. Perhaps, like some of them, I was hoping to see shots full of brilliant moments filled with that unique mystery and awe every moment of his Films hold, at least for me. Then again, I should have realized that very little about Stanley Kubrick lies where you’d expect to find it.

“Observation is a dying art.” Stanley Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick: Interviews.

Stanley Kubrick’s Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic camera as seen in the Stanley Kubrick show at LACMA in 2013 still looks to be in decent condition after seeing heavy use at least between the years 1941-50. *Photo by Seth Anderson

The story begins when Jack Kubrick, a physician and passionate amateur Photographer, gave his son a professional Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic camera for his 13th birthday on July 26th, 1941. Stanley’s friend, Marvin Traub, had a darkroom in his house, so after their sojourns around town taking Photos, the two would develop their film there. On or about April 13, 1945, the day after Franklin D. Roosevelt died, Stanley came across this scene at 170th Street & the Grand Concourse, in the Bronx3–

17 year old Stanley Kubrick’s FDR Dead, 1945, was the first Photograph he sold to Look Magazine.

Well, sort of. At first he said this shot resulted from “lucky happenstance.” But, he later admitted he “coaxed4” the news seller, surrounded by newspapers declaring President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died, into this pose.

Wait. What?

He went home and developed the film in the darkroom that he had by then installed in his own house and took it into Manhattan to the offices of Look Magazine. There, Helen O’Brian, chief of the Photography Department, saw it and paid him 25 dollars for it.

It ran in the spread above in Look’s June 26, 1945 issue, the last of 36 Photos, and the only enlarged image in the group. Stanley Kubrick was still a High School student at William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx. Think about this- In June, 1945, Stanley Kubrick had not even had his Graflex for 4 years. But, there’s more to it. That he “urged the salesman to look more depressed than he was for dramatic effect5” is “directing”- he’s eliciting a performance for a scene.

Therefore, this is the first instance we have of Stanley Kubrick putting his “directing” skill into practice.

It, also, serves to put the viewer on notice that from here on out his Photographs may not be entirely as they seem. As my research continued (and continues), I found more and more Photographs that curators and researchers say were posed or staged. Not all of them, but a good number. For me, this first revelation turned out to be only one way in which Stanley Kubrick, the Director & Filmmaker, begins to manifest his presence in the work of his younger self. As for that younger self, while he was too old at 17 to be a “child prodigy,” when you take his ability, his eye, and his gift for whatever the composition needed into account, from his work at 17, I think he qualifies as a “prodigy.”

The mothership. The Look Magazine Building, 488 Madison Avenue, around the corner from MoMA, was built in 1948-50, during the last half of Stanley Kurbrick’s employment there. It’s now a landmark building. Seen on February 2, 2019.

“One thing that helped me get over being a school misfit was I became interested in photography at about 12 or 13.” Stanley Kubrick6.

From “How A Monkey Looks to People…How People Look to a Monkey,” Published in Look, August 20, 1946. SK was a $50. a week Apprentice Photographer when he took this classic Photo at 18 years of age.

He sold Photos to Look from time to time until he graduated in January, 1946. Thanks to his frequent truancy cutting class to go see movies at the Loew’s Paradise Theatre near his home (hmmmm….), his 67 grade average was too low to compete for a place in college against the returning G.I.’s7, when a 75 was the floor to even be considered. So, Helen O’Brian hired him for Look as an Apprentice Photographer for $50. a week. He became a full Staff Photographer in October, 1946. Stanley Kubrick grew up fast. Look became his college. “By the time I was 21, I had four years of seeing how things worked in the world. I think if I had gone to college I would never have become a Director8.” It was a unique “college” in that it offered posterity a chance to study the development of the “student” over the 5 years he was there.

“Writing, of course, is writing, acting comes from the theater, and cinematography comes from photography.” Stanley Kubrick9.

Unpublished contact strips depicting people conversing the street, probably shot with a telephoto lens. There’s an undeniable “cinematic” feel to these series, a number of other such sequences were included in the show.

On his way to becoming a great Director, Stanley Kubrick was an accomplished professional Photographer first, skills that never left him, and that he would use constantly in his Films. The component skills he developed being a Photographer (who was already technically proficient)- composition, lighting, setting a scene, working with subjects, would prove invaluable to him. As would observation – that “dying art.” In addition, a number of the assignments he was sent on became experiences that he also used to learn about what would be his later profession.

One of those “other” skills is storytelling. Even besides the strips just shown, there is a strong sense of it throughout the quite sympathetic body of work seen here. Where did it come from? Whatever its origin, it’a already on full display, here, at 19. His unique way of telling a story is certainly a hallmark of his Films. Here are some of the 250 Photos he shot for an unpublished assignment called “Shoeshine Boy,” handed in on October 6, 1947, one of the most fascinating stories I’ve seen, in which he followed the title boy, Mickey, to his job, to school, doing errands, hanging out with his friends and family, and tending his pigeon coop. Mickey was only 7 years younger than Stanley Kubrick at the time.

Stanley’s Photographs are technically accomplished from the first one to the last. Surprisingly so for the viewer new to this work, given his youth and the fact that he was self-taught. His Photographs turn out to be up to any technical challenge thrown his way- day, night, portraits, action, off the cuff, groups- what I’ve seen thus far of his 135 assignments run the full gamut. It doesn’t matter the situation, the environment, the lighting or time of day. Is he the “master” magazine Photographer? No. He’s not. There are times when any one of the innumerable technical elements inherent in Photography seems to let him down, but by and large I came away exceedingly impressed with his technical ability. Stephen Spielberg said that one thing that bonded Stanley Kubrick’s Films together was “the incredible virtuoso that he was with craft10.” I get that sense from looking at his Photography. Unlike Weegee (who ALWAYS seems to get his shot, and 95% of the time does so using flash), Stanley doesn’t shoot one way. He adapts to the situation and what he’s trying to express, which is gutsy for a young Photographer trying to secure his place on a staff of a magazine such as Look, which included some established names, like Arthur Rothstein and John Vachon. The deeper you look into this work, the more there is to say about it. Though only touched on in the books and articles I’ve seen, in my opinion, every single aspect of this work needs to be studied in depth-

From “Rosemary Williams-Showgirl,” unpublished from March, 1949, Rosemary Williams and a man at a candle-lit table, 1949. An early candle-lit Stanley Kubrick Photograph that just might seem to presage the extraordinary lighting & camerawork in his now classic Barry Lyndon, 1975, where, by then, he would master the exposure.

-His technique- Where was it in April, 1945, and how it changes and how it evolved over his Look career. This includes his compositional choices, positioning (love of low angles and overheads), lighting (natural light versus flash), and how all of these may have appeared in his Films.

Stanley Kubrick shot surreptitiously in the Subwary for a piece titled “Life and Love on the New York Subway,” March 4, 1947, using a cable release that ran down his sleeve. He had no way of knowing that Walker Evans had, also, shot secretly in the subway in 1941 because Walker did not publish his series until the book, Many Are Called, was published in 1966, out of fear of lawsuits from his subjects because he did not have releases from them.

-The assignments-  Both published and unpublished. Between the Library of Congress’ and the MCNY’s websites about half of his Photographs appear to be online, as far as I can tell. The complete body of SK’s Photographs needs to be made available. Only then can a proper assessment of his achievement and what it portends for his future work be made.

An unprecedented Photo. Rocky Graziano in an unpublished outtake from the story “Rocky Graziano: He’s a Good Boy Now,” which ran on Valentine’s Day, 1950. It says a lot that Rock Graziano, who was coming back from a scandal, would allow this shot to be taken. Boxing was a subject Stanley Kubrick shot on a number of occasions for Look, and the depth at which he studied this subject, like this and the shot of Willie Beltram, below, paid dividends in the heightened realism he achieved in a few of his later Films.

-The assignments that tie directly into his later Films. These include a number of boxing stories, the Aqueduct Race Track story, the stories involving TV Productions, actors and actresses (ranging from Montgomery Clift, Zero Mostel, and Frank Sinatra, to the unknown Rosemary Williams), and his Naked City shoot.

Stanley Kubrick posed this shot from the “Subway” series in 1947. How do we know this? That’s his future wife, Toba Metz (who he married in May, 1948) on the left, who appears in other shots in the series. More on this shot in BookMarks, at the end.

-Which shots did he pose? (As far as is known).

Why is all of this necessary? While there have been shows like this fine show and others in Europe, they, and the books just scratch the surface. They only reveal part of the story, only presenting a limited glimpse of the whole body of work, due to its size, which Professor Rainer Crone says is 12,000 Photographs. The books that have been published thus far (all but one of them out of print) each contain between 2 and about 400 hundred. Even if you have all of them in front of you (I have three), you still only get to see part of any one story he shot! Stanley, like most staff Photographers at Look, shot a lot of Photographs for their stories to allow the editors the widest leeway in making their selection (I wasn’t able to determine if he ever made the selections himself, or had any say in it. It would appear he did not.). With, say, 250 images for a given story, almost– none of his assignments have been published complete thus far (as far as I can tell). This is incredibly frustrating and, of course, it does not allow a full assessment of his work- even on one assignment.

Willie Beltram, October/November, 1947, from an unpublished story, the first time SK shot boxers, a subject he would return to a few times at Look, and in his early Films, Day of the Fight and Killer’s Kiss. In those films, too, he would get right into the ring and very close to the action. It seems to me it also looks ahead to the carnage he graphically depicted in Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket.

Is it practical to release tens of thousands of Photographs? One look at the ten volume(!) set Taschen published of the existing material for Stanley Kubrick’s unmade Film, Napoleon, which includes 15,000 location Photos AND 17,000 “slides of Napoleonic imagery” (though shown at a large thumbnail size) would seem to say- “Where there’s a will? There’s a way.” After being immersed in this work for the better part of the past 4 months, I believe it is important enough that it needs to be done, and I predict someone will do it- one day (and I say that knowing nothing about the politics/legalities involved with, and between, the Kubrick Estate, the Library of Congress, and the MCNY). After pouring over the show, the existing web resources, and the 3 books I have (which together include about 8 or 900 images, though some are duplicated), my desire to see more has only grown. Given the unlikeliness of Stanley Kubrick’s Films diminishing in interest or importance any time soon this need will only remain, if not grow. From my study, I’ll say this-

I’m absolutely convinced there is more to learn about Stanley Kubrick, the Director, in this body of work- his Look Photographs, than there is anywhere else besides his actual Films and his interviews.

Weegee? No. Stanley Kubrick during the prodcution of the Weegee inspired film, Naked City. Speaking of “Street Photography,” it’s interesting to note that both Stanley Kubrick and Garry Winogrand were born in the Bronx in 1928. For perspective, Diane Arbus, who knew Stanley during his Look days, was born in 1923.

Put them all online, perhaps in a joint website. Maybe that’s the most practical way. Arrange them by story assignment-unpublished or not, in chronological order. Reproduce each magazine story, when there is one, follow that with all the Photographs, published and unpublished (uncropped, full size, since they were cropped on occasion in the magazine), in the order they were taken, and also include the contact sheets, would be my suggestion. Whether this all comes out as a book, or series of books, perhaps by year? That’s up to a publisher. I think it would find buyers. Is this going to be a popular series? No. Then again, no “catalog rainsonne” is a best seller. It’s for specialists. It’s for those passionately interested in the Artist’s (Stanley Kubrick’s) work, and for those seeking to learn from his path. It’s probably not for the everyday lover of Photography, though a well produced summary volume might be reasonably popular. (See BookMarks at the end for more on the existing books and some recommendations.)

Four Photographs from the unpublished “Naked City,” assignment,  July 31, 1947. Stanley Kubrick went to shoot the production of the Film Noir movie, which took its name from Weegee’s famous book. Weegee was someone Stanley Kurbrick admired, and years later hired him as Still Photographer on Dr. Strangelove. Here, Stanley got to watch Director Jules Dassin (upper right) work and observe the production. None of this would be lost on him. His early Films, Killer’s Kiss, and the terrific The Killing are both Film Noir and both shot in the city.

Experts, including German Professor Rainer Crone (the first person to research this body of work, with Stanley Kubrick’s personal blessing, mount exhibitions of it and write the first books on it) mention a few stories, in particular, as being springboards to the future career of Stanley Kubrick. Many agree that his Look shoot of the filming of the Film Noir classic Naked City was a key moment, giving him an inside look at a rare movie production going on at the time in a big city. Boxing assignments were also influential. He shot Rocky Graziano and relatively unknown boxer Walter Cartier. In 1951 Stanley Kubrick made a 12 minute documentary short Film entitled Day of the Fight following the same Walter Cartier around from wake up until after the final K.O., veritably recreating his Look story, “Prizefighter,” on Film. In that sense, this marked the beginning of the end for Stanley Kubrick at Look. In addition, late in his career at Look, his assignments brought him more and more often into contact with TV Productions, actors and actresses. All of these experiences proved “educational” for him for where he would go next.

In the article “Prizefighter,” featuring the boxer Walter Cartier, the subtitle of this section is “The Day of a Fight.”

By this point, he had seen what he needed to see to begin making films, down to knowing what equipment he’d need, where to get it and how much it would cost to rent. Long desiring to make Documentaries, he turned the Walter Cartier “Prizefighter” story into one.

Screenshot of the title card of Day of the Fight, 1951, his first film, at age 25, which runs a bit over 12 minutes, and which he Photographed.

Stanley Kubrick’s early films carry this credit-

His credit line in Killer’s Kiss, 1955. He also wrote the story. See the Appendix for more screenshots that are reminiscent of SK’s Look Photos.

“Photographed by Stanley Kubrick.” Today, we would call it “Cinematography.” But, I think the term “Photographed” is telling. Eventually, by the The Killing, 1956, unionization forced him to hire a Cinematographer11. Yet, SK would continue to look through the viewfinder (and there are countless shots of his on his sets doing just that) and the camera, and continue to shoot Film on occasion.

Photographer/Director Shane Rocheleau at the NYABF, September 22, 2018.

Fascinated by the difference between shooting still Photographs and Film, I reached out to a man who has experience creating both- Shane Rocheleau. The subject of a Q&A I did in September, 2018,  I even mentioned Stanley Kubrick in describing his talents in my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018, saying that his first PhotoBook, You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals, or YAMOTFABAATA as it reads on the spine, was “edited like a Stanley Kubrick Film.” I’m not sure there’s a higher invocation I could give someone in Photography or Film. In addition to being an exceptionally talented Photographer, Shane Rocheleau is already proving to be one of the new masters of PhotoBook editing & sequencing. During my research into him, I also discovered that he is a Film Director. I reached out to him, and he confirmed this for me, and sent along this link where his Film, Tide, 2009, that he also wrote, can be seen. I asked him about the differences between shooting still Photographs and Film. He said-

“I can’t pretend to speak for a genius like Kubrick, but I’ll give you a bit of insight into the differences between creating photographs and creating films, for me. To clarify first, though:  I am not a documentary photographer, and I am not an experimental filmmaker. If I were both, my answers below would, maybe, flip-flop. What I know of Kubrick, he, like me, was not a documentary photographer nor an experimental filmmaker.

When I hear the word “conceptual” placed in proximity with “art”, it means something very specific to me. Namely, it means that the artist’s conclusion was rendered before the art was executed. Plans were made. The resulting art product serves to explain, announce, demonstrate, manifest, etc. knowledge or forms the artist has already resolved (The God of Genesis appears to have been a conceptual artist). While when making films I may be unsure of the knowledge I’m attempting to disseminate, but my narratives and forms are usually fairly well determined. Story, arc, shots, and sequences are imagined prior, and props, actors, location, etc. are fairly settled. My film will have some room to grow or morph at every step in the creative process; however, I view the overall arc of its making to be well aligned with my idea of conceptual art:  I imagine the film first, then execute its making.

For me, the photographic process operates in contrast with conceptual art. While I usually begin a photography project with an idea, never in my experience has that idea remained intact through to the end; on the contrary, I always learn I was wrong. The photographic process is inherently about discovery. Even when I presage a photograph, the final product reveals something very new, often even contradictory. Rather than marked by understanding, my ideas are rended by my photographs. Confusion necessarily ensues, and meaning emerges as I let go of certainty, make unexpected pictures, sequence and pair the absurd, and indulge discovery. The final project is a new growth, a new understanding. Contrary to a conceptual process, once I resolve my ideas, I’m done.”

After making 3 short Documentary Films (Day of the Fight, Flying Padre, both 1951, and The Seafarers, 1953), he realized that the only way to make enough money to sustain a career was in making feature Films. By then, he had quit is job at Look and would never look back. He would make his first feature Film, Fear and Desire, later in 1953, which he also “Photographed.”

In order to look a little closer at the similarities between Stanley Kubrick’s early Films and his Look Photographs, I’ve created an Appendix that appears below this piece (or, here) that includes screenshots from the first part of his second feature Film, Killer’s Kiss, 1955, “Photographed” by SK, that look similar to me to some of his Photographs I’ve shown here.

Beyond these similarities, the influence of his still Photography lived on in his later work, even after he was working with other Cinematographers. For one thing, he is often seen holding a still film camera on the set.

Stanley Kubrick on the set of Spartacus– with THREE still cameras around his neck! Mr. Rocheleau thought that he was shooting for pleasure, given the smile on his face. The reason would seem to not be an instant need to see the Photos since the film would need to be developed. *From the Stanley Kurbrick Archives. 

As his vision matured, and his resources (and budget) increased, it largely outstripped what we see in his Look Photographs. One significant remaining holdover was Stanley Kubrick continued to rely on a still camera, now a Polaroid instant camera, to take Photos to see how the scene looked in two dimensions and to check colors, continuity, and for other reasons,. on the sets of many of his films, including the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey–

 

For those looking for evidence of the lasting  effect of Stanley Kubrick’s still Photography career and experience on his Films, this may be the defining image. With his Polaroid Pathfinder 110A on the set of 2001. *From the Stanley Kurbrick Archives. 

I’ve seen estimates that SK shot 10,000 Polaroids during the production of 2001. In the book The Making of Kubrick’s 2001, 1970, Jeremy Bernstein’s 1966 Profile of Stanley Kubrick, originally published in The New Yorker, is reprinted. In it, Mr. Bernstein says, “I asked Kubrick what he needed the Polaroid for, and he explained that he used it for checking subtle lighting effects for color film. He and the director of photography, Geoffrey Unsworth, had worked out a correlation between how the lighting appeared on the instantly developed Polaroid film and the settings on the movie camera12.” He continued to use it, as he does here, on Full Metal Jacket, 1987-

Stanley hands a freshly shot Polaroid print to an associate as it develops on the set of Full Metal Jacket where he appears to still be using his Polaroid Pathfinder 110A, some 20 years after 2001. *From the Stanley Kurbrick Archives. 

Perhaps by his last Film, Eyes Wide Shut, 1999, he was using an early digital camera, or perhaps he still preferred to see the image instantly on a print. A lover of new technologies, who knows what he would have been doing or how he would have been working today. Whatever the means, the value of his early training as a still Photographer would, no doubt, have still been paying off for him.

Given the level of his talent and his vision it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that as we approach the 20th anniversary of his death on March 7, 1999, next month, there is still much to discover about, and in, the work of Stanley Kubrick.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “My Old School” by Walter Becker & Donald Fagan of Steely Dan, recorded on their second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, 1973. (Yes, it’s on Countdown to Ecstasy. I have no idea why the producers of this video show the cover of Can’t Buy A Thirll.)

The Appendix to this Post, Stanley Kubrick: A Photographer’s Odyssey-Appendix, is below, following BookMarks, or here.

BookMarks-

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As I said above, this body of work is vast and covers 5 years. The issue of how to approach it becomes Question One for anyone attempting to make a book about it. To date, all the books I’ve seen have been focused on exploring it. None have attempted to present the complete picture or look at this work in light of what came after (a book with tens of thousands of Photogaphs would be massive, even if it consisted of thumbnails, like Gerhard Richter’s Atlas). The 3 books I’ve seen thus far all take the same approach- an historical look at selected stories and images and only occasionally mention his later Film career13 For a variety of reasons, none of these books is “the” definitive book on Stanley Kubrick’s Look Photographs, in my opinion. The books are-

Stanley Kubrick Photographs: Through a Different Lens, published by Taschen in conjunction with the MCNY, and its curators, Sean Corcoran and Donald Albrecht, in 2018, is the catalog for this show. The only book currently in print on the subject of Stanley Kubrick’s Photographs, it contains about 300 of them, over 332 pages that are split between beautiful full-page and double page reproductions of single Photographs and reproductions of the Look Magazine stories they ran in. Unpublished assignments are also included. After the initial essays, the remainder of the book is arranged by year and assignment.

An outtake from “Life and Love on the New York Subway,” March 4, 1947, beautifully reproduced across 2 pages, which results in an image size of 26 1/2 by 22 inches! Compared with the shot posted earlier (from an online source), the man’s position has changed and the Photographer has moved closer. How do I know this hasn’t been cropped? This image appears on a strip from the contact sheet published in the Stanley Kubrick Archives.

The best thing about this book, in my opinion, is its size- It’s BIG. 10.8 x 13.2 x 1.5 inches and clocking in at 6.6 pounds. Unlike most recent very large PhotoBooks, this one takes continual advantage of its acreage, often going edge to edge14 This presents the opportunity to see selected landscape oriented Photos at the incredible size of 26 1/2 by 22 inches, as seen above!  The chance to see Stanley Kubrick’s Photographs in a large size does not exist, nor has it ever existed, outside of this book. EVEN in the show (save for a handful of wall size blowups, like the sign shown earlier)! Here you get to see many of its 300 images in full page, 10.8 x 13.2 inch, reproductions. Taschen’s history with XL size books is to make them smaller with each succeeding incarnation. So? If you want to see these images big, this may be your only chance to do so. As such, I expect this first edition will retain lasting interest with Kubrickians (did I just coin that term? I doubt it) indefinitely. As for its shortcomings, I am unhappy with some of the assignments included (Guy Lombardo shown at home. Why?) and those left out which have a direct import on his subsequent Film career. Therefore, it seems to me the editors may have intended this book to be a general interest book. Second, the images in this book are reproduced with a depth of blacks I haven’t seen before. The images in the show were also printed similarly as you can see in my piece. Nothing is said in the book (or in the show) about how these prints were made. In the Preface, Whitney Donhauser only states, “The Kubrick Archive has been photographed, scanned and retouched by…” Compare the one above to the other images below, the sources of which are not stated either. Also, the images on the MCNY website are darker than those on the Library of Congress site. I’m not sure what to make of this but it’s something to be aware of. In my opinion, the curators/editors should have addressed and clarified this somewhere. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in seeing these Photographs large, and for those interested in this body of work not wanting to spend rare book prices for the out of print titles. Recommended with reservations.

Rainer Crone’s SK: Drama and Shadows, published by Phaidon in 2005

The other books on Stanley Kubrick’s Photographs are all either out of print, not in English, or both. Of these, Professor Rainer Crone is the man behind those I know of. He was the first one to show this work, with Mr. Kubrick’s blessing, and he has produced, I believe, 3 books about it so far. The most well known of these is the hardcover Stanley Kubrick: Drama & Shadows, published (in English) by Phaidon in 2005. Good, or better, copies can be found for 65.00 and up. It is very well done, does not give any evidence of cropping, though the reproductions do not have the depths of blacks the Taschen book has. The supporting texts are quite informative and reveal Mr. Crone’s ongoing interest in, and dedication to, this work. While its selection fills in some of the gaps in the Taschen book, again, I felt frustrated by some of what was left out (as I will be until a way is found to see all of this work).

A sample image, from SK’s “Aqueduct Racetrack: Hope, Despair and Habit” assignment, March, 1947, which I feel is important for its possible influence on his film The Killing, 1956, about a race track heist.

The front flap says it contains 400 Photographs over 240 pages of a good paper stock. Recommended, if you can find a copy in good condition at a reasonable price.

Rainer Crone’s SK Fotographie, the catalog accompanying a 2010 show in Milan.

I have one of Rainer Crone’s other books, Stanley Kubrick Fotographie, 1945-50, a large softcover book, though its text is only in Italian. This is frustrating because it’s the most recent of Rainer Crone’s books (I believe), being the catalog accompanying a show he curated in Milan in 2010. It includes interesting supplements, including a list of published Look articles and Photos of the covers of (all?) of those issues (Stanley Kubrick shot a few of the covers in color, but those are shown in black & white here). I don’t know the total image count over its 255 pages, but it includes more images in some of the series than the Taschen book. It is, however, extremely hard to find- much more so than Drama & Shadows. Recommended for specialists in SK’s Photographs.

A sample image shows another shot from the “How A Monkey Looks to People…How People Look to a Monkey,” assignment, from August, 1946. As you can see, the images here appear darker than in SK: Drama and Shadows. Perhaps it is using the digitized MCNY sources.

The body of literature on Stanley Kubrick and his Films is large and outside the scope of this piece, however one book must be mentioned and singled out from that body for its sheer uniqueness and extraordinary value- The Stanley Kubrick Archives began life as a 2005 Taschen XXL book that came with a filmstrip from Stanley Kubrick’s copy of 2001 that now sells for hundreds of dollars on the rare book market. More recently reissued in one of their small brick books it lists for 19.95. I mention it because it has a very interesting first chapter that discusses Stanley Kubrick’s Photography, along with countless Photographs of Mr. Kubrick at work, and a very large number of rare items from his own collection & archives. All of this makes it an essential book for anyone interested in Stanley Kubrick- Photographer or Filmmaker.

Finally, I have it on good account that some first edition copies of Shane Rocheleau’s first PhotoBook, YAMOTFABAATA, the only First PhotoBook to be listed among my NoteWorthy PhotoBooks of 2018, are still available from Gnomic Book, here.

My thanks to Shane Rocheleau and Mary Flanagan of the Museum of the City of New York.

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  1. Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs, published by Taschen in conjunction with this show, henceforth Exhibition Catalog, Preface ↩
  2. “Ive always said the two people who are worthy of film study are Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles as representing the two most diverse approaches to filmmaking.” Stanley Kubrick: Interviews, P. 79 ↩
  3. Jeremy Bernstein Audio Interview, 11/27/1966 ↩
  4. The Stanley Kubrick Archives, P.13 ↩
  5.  Exhibition Catalog, P.10 ↩
  6.  Jeremy Bernstein Audio Interview, 11/27/1966 ↩
  7. Jeremy Bernstein Audio Interview, 11/27/1966 ↩
  8. Exhibition Catalog, P.9, quoted from Michael Herr, Kubrick, P. 4 ↩
  9. //www.brainyquote.com/authors/stanley_kubrick ↩
  10. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd97Og-20Yc&app=desktop ↩
  11. Stanley Kubrick Archives P.110 ↩
  12. The Making of Kubrick’s 2001, Edited by Jerome Agel, P.68 ↩
  13. The third book is in Italian, so I have no idea what it’s essays discuss. ↩
  14. Since many of these images have never been previously published, I have no way of comparing them, so I don’t know if there is any cropping going on here. I seriously hope not and I am writing this under the assumption there is not. If you can prove differently, please let me know. ↩

Stanley Kubrick: A Photographer’s Odyssey- Appendix

Written by Kenn Sava

As a supplement to my look at the recent show,  Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, here are a few screenshots from the first part of  Stanley Kubrick’s second feature Film, Killer’s Kiss, 1955, that remind me of some of his Look Magazine Photographs I showed in the piece. Killer’s Kiss is a film noir that revolves around a boxer, a taxi dancer and her boss, and runs 67 minutes.

Killer’s Kiss Title. Shot in the now lost Penn Station, who’s destruction eight years later in 1963, was one of the greatest cultural tragedies in NYC history.

Notice the word “Photographed.” He also wrote the story. As he said in interviews, he “did everything” in his Films at this time to save money, perhaps symbolized by the gent on the right sweeping up.

Boxer Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith) studies his face. It’s hard to look at this and not see the portraits of Show Girl Rosemary Williams applying lipstick at her mirror in 1947, posted in my piece. I think we can imagine from that shot just where SK is standing to shoot this.

Davey feeds his fish. This shot is an interesting “counterpoint” to the “What People Look Like to Monkeys” shots.

Stanley Kubrick extends the metaphor from the fishbowl to the “fishbowl-like” world New Yorkers live in, as Davey looks across the way at his neighbor Gloria. We cut to Gloria who spends 16 seconds looking back after Davey has turned away.

Heading off to the fight, Davey takes the subway, conveniently allowing SK to reprise his Look subway shots. Ahhh…subways with ceiling fans.

Gloria is a taxi dancer, at work she allows SK to use his experience shooting couples dancing in nightclubs, seen in a few Look assignments.

Meanwhile, Davey gets knocked out and loses, allowing SK to shot him as he did Willie Beltram earlier for Look.

All of this takes place in the first 16 minutes of the Film! I stopped here to give you a chance to see the Film for yourself and see what you find. And then? There’s this-

The original poster. Wait one second! Where else have I seen an AXE in a Stanley Kubrick Film? In front of the color “Red” no less…

BookMarks–

Killer’s Kiss, 1956, starring Frank Silvera, Irene Kane and Jamie Smith, is highly recommended to Stanley Kubrick aficionados who don’t know it, and to those interested in his Look Photographs.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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Charles White- Now

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

“Drawing is [a] particularly exciting medium for me. I just like the feel of it. My whole body is into it when I draw and I think black and white is as effective a medium [as any].” Charles White1

Charles White, Detail of Study for Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Charcoal and oil wash over pencil on board. Click any Photo for full size.

Ah…the majesty of excellent draftsmanship… Just when you thought it was dead as a doornail, with Photography destroying all previous Artforms in its world dominating wake, along comes a Retrospective of one of the Masters of the craft of Drawing in the 20th Century, the late Charles White (1918-1979), who’s centenary is celebrated in the first major museum survey devoted to his Art in over 30 years. Charles White: A Retrospective, made its second stop at MoMA after debuting at the Art Institute of Chicago and now heads to LACMA beginning February 16th, thus tracing the 3 cities Mr. White lived in- in order. Its magisterial, full of wonders, and long overdue. The only possible caveat could be- MORE!…even bigger, please.

The entrance, divided by a sliding glass door, of one of the great shows of recent years.

By no means a small show, clocking in at 114 items (many of them quite large), over 13 section, the takeaway is that, henceforth, it will be impossible to deny Charles White his place in the pantheon of great Artists of the century. Again.

Charles White was a very successful Artist during his lifetime. He had gallery representation in each city he lived in and his work was collected by museums, nationally and internationally. He was also sought out as a teacher, particularly at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, from 1965 until his passing in 1979 at only 61. After his death, he fell into something of an eclipse. But, his influence has lived on through the work of his students including Richard Wyatt, Jr, Kent Twitchell (both muralists), and most prominently, Kerry James Marshall (a “representational” Painter) and David Hammons (who has worked in a wide range of media). Mr. Marshall never seems to miss an opportunity to laud Charles White- as a teacher and as an Artist, frequently speaking of him in the highest terms, as he has, again, writing the preface for the excellent Exhibition Catalog. He led me to take a deeper look at Charles White a few years ago. Mr. Hammons paid tribute to Charles White in October, 2017 when he curated the remarkable Leonardo da Vinci-Charles White show at MoMA, that I wrote about here. Judging by the crowds that attended this show, as the MoMA stop of the Charles White Retrospective “tour” ends and Los Angeles prepares to welcome it, I think it’s already safe to say, the Charles White “eclipse” is over.  The other take away, for me, is that Charles White’s influence deserves to be even greater than it already is. With all due respect to his students, Charles White’s Art more than speaks for itself.

Study for Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Charcoal and oil wash over pencil on board.

When I was a kid, everyone drew. Some, eventually, took lessons and studied Drawing seriously, which is something you can devote your life to and learn something new each and every day. Even for those that didn’t study it, Drawing became a part of many of their lives, whether making doodles, notes, caricatures, or, what have you. That seems to be changing and I think it’s tragic. Drawing is another language, one that is every bit as effective at communicating as writing. I think it’s an essential life skill. Unfortunately, it’s one that I don’t see as many doing as they were 15 or 20 years ago. One look at the work of Charles White will show you what’s possible with Drawing. 

The final Drawing.Nat Turner, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, 1968, Drybrush and ink on board, 51 x 78 inches.

As beautiful and technically masterful as it is, Charles White’s work is about expressing ideas. “An artist must bear a social responsibility. He must be accountable for the content of his work. And that work should reflect a deep, abiding concern for humanity. He has that responsibility whether he wants it or not because he’s dealing with ideas. And ideas are power. They must be used one way or the other,” Charles White2. He was speaking in 1978. He could have been speaking yesterday.

Back cover of the Exhibition Catalog.

Those ideas revolved, largely, around his efforts to set the record straight on black history in America in response to the way it was taught when he was growing up. He did this through depicting both the famous and those not so famous in powerful and unique ways that seen over the course of my 4 visits seemed to resonate with visitors in ways I don’t often see. Time and again, I encountered whole families moving slowly from work to work, with the parents patiently explaining fine details of a subject’s life, or very little known cultural details Mr. White had depicted, from what I could gather when they were next to me.

Charles White hit the ground running. He received a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago at 13. He drew this at 17-

Self-Portrait, 1935, Black crayon on cardboard.

He then began exploring a wide range of styles over the next few decades, some showing the influence of abstraction, cubism and mannerism, but, remarkably, always remaining his. I found it interesting to trace them in his early murals, for which only studies remain. The first one, Five Great American Negroes was done 4 years after the Self-Portrait, when Charles White was 21.

Charles White, Five Great Americans Negroes, 1939, Oil on canvas. From left to right- Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, and Marian Anderson

Here we see Charles White depicting famous figures- living and dead (these were selected by the readers of the newspaper who sponsored the mural), something he would do for much of the rest of his career. The enlarged arms and hands that begin to be seen here remind me of passages in Michelangelo and the Mannerists, like Hendrick Goltzius.  The Mexican Muralists- Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who he met on a later trip to Mexico, were an obvious big influence. Artistically and philosophically.

Study for Struggle for Liberation (Chaotic Stage of the Negro, Past and Present), 1940, Tempera on illustration board.

One year later, his Struggle for Liberation (Chaotic Stage of the Negro, Past and Present), a 1940 project for a Chicago Library that was never completed, is known today only through this study and some Photographs taken by Gordon Parks. In this incredibly complex composition, the left side speaks to the past, the right to the present. Both scenes appear to be filled with everyday people, except for John Brown, apparently holding a gun,  in the lower left. According to curator Sarah Kelly Oehler in the Exhibition Catalog, this work can be seen as indication that his ideas were leaning left and towards putting more faith in everyday people to bring change. In the right side, “He depicted capitalism, politics, institutional power, and violence as responsible for the ongoing injustices faced by African Americans as they demanded their rights3.” The work was deemed “inappropriate” for a library, even one that served a black community. Charles White, apparently, finished the left side of it, then moved to New York.

Study for The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America, 1943. Tempera on board. Note the row of Civil War soldiers, near the center. Painted during World War II, these were possibly included in support of a campaign to gain equal rights at home and abroad for African American soldiers as a reminder of their contributions during the Civil War.

In the last of Charles White’s three early murals, The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America, 1943, the Artist includes at least 14 identified historical figures, in a circular composition. His style, again, is unique and fascinating. Note the hands of the guitar player, possibly Lead Belly (playing a guitar with no strings), in the lower right and the planar nature of the portraits. Again, there seems to be the influence of Diego Rivera, with the machinery in the center echoing his Detroit Industry Murals.

Five portraits, in five styles. Clockwise from top left- Worker, 1944, John Brown, 1949, Gideon, 1951, Untitled (Bearded Man), c. 1949, and Frederick Douglas, 1950.

This wall shows 5 portraits, each in a different style, that includes at least one study for a mural portrait.

 

Worker, 1944, Linocut on paper. From the Exhibition Catalog. .

When I look at these, and in particular the portraits of the Worker, John Brown, Untitled (Bearded Man) and Frederick Douglas, I’m reminded of the prints of the German Expressionist, Kathe Kollwitz (1967-1945), an Artist who was, also, passionately involved in social causes, increasingly after losing her son, Peter, in World War 1 in 1914. Kathe Kollwitz was influenced by Expressionist Ernst Barlach’s prints, but further stripped them down to their essentials, in stark works like this Frontal Self-Portrait, 1922-23.

Kathe Kollwitz, Frontal Self-Portrait, 1922-23, Woodcut. MoMA Photograph.

Charles White was both an avid Photographer and a collector of Photographs in books and in the media (like Francis Bacon). Charles White’s own Photography is only touched on in the show with this case of 17 Photographs. It’s a subject that warrants closer study.

A selection of Photographs taken by Charles White range from portraits to street scenes to shots of a protest in NYC.

Both his Photos and his collection of media provided him with reference material that he created many of his works from (also like Mr. Bacon). I find this interesting since Charles White was a master of life drawing which he also taught.

As his career went on, and his mature style appeared, particularly in his work after his move to California to help with the lingering side effects of the tuberculosis he got in the Army in 1944, his images are more and more open to interpretation.

Birmingham Totem, 1964, Ink and charcoal on paper, 71 x 40 inches.

Birmingham Totem, 1964, is an amazing work on many levels. First, it stands one inch shy of 6 feet tall, unheard of for a Drawing, except in this show. Second, it’s an “elegy” (per the wall card) to the four girls (one, aged 11, three age 14) that were killed in a KKK bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. In it, a young man sits atop of pile of rubble, rendered in incredible detail. Even more remarkable, the young man holds a plumb line in his right hand, the weight of which is seen about half way down. He would appear to symbolize rebuilding.

J’Accuse #1, 1965, Charcoal and Wolff crayon on illustration board. This series marks the debut of Charles White’s mature style, based in realism. The hands and arms are no longer exaggerated. While the style is more direct, the composition is more open to interpretation, and so, more abstract, which would continue for the rest of his career. According to Ilene Susan Fort in the Exhibition Catalog, the 12 powerful and stunning works in the J’Accuse series “constitute a thematic indictment of the systemic, ongoing disenfranchisement of African Americans4.”

Charles White, master of Drawing, master of depicting the black form (per Kerry James Marshall- “Nobody else has drawn the black body with more elegance and authority.” Exhibition Catalog P.15), is someone who had a strong agenda he manifested in his work. He championed the struggle of African Americans, women (witness his 1951 solo show, Negro Women, where all 15 works on view included a woman), and workers, in Artworks that included both historical figures and every day people. Along the way, he created a body of work that adds another powerful voice telling another side of African American history with unique compositions featuring exquisite execution. Charles White’s compositions were always complex. From the earliest work shown, Kitchenette Debutantes, 1939,

General Moses (Harriet Tubman), 1965, Ink on paper.

Among the women that reappear in Charles White’s work, none is his subject more often than the activist and abolitionist Harriet Tubman (1822-1913). This later work, General Moses (Harriet Tubman), is a striking portrait of her. Then, so is this-

Harriet, 1972, Oil on board.

In what is, perhaps, his finest series, in my eyes, the late Wanted Poster Series, Charles White reimagines “Wanted” posters issued for runaway slaves.

Wanted Poster Series #17, 1971, Oil and pencil on poster board.

A series of 14 works he began in 1969, the images are powerfully direct, yet still retain a fascinating mystery as one ponders the details. The background textures and the stenciled text remind me of Contemporary Art techniques found in the work of, say, Jasper Johns.

Banner for Willie J., 1976, Oil on canvas, memorializes Charles White’s cousin, Willie J., an innocent bystander who was killed in a bar robbery.

Black Pope is the already classic example of late Charles White. Featured in the 2 piece MoMA show in 2017 opposite a Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, it was also the subject of a fine MoMA book released at the time. It perfectly sums up the experience of looking at it, and late Charles White when it concludes on its final page, “If we today find the work difficult to define, the drawing demands that we try5.” It is this enigmatic approach to realism that may be of lasting influence to those who have come after Charles White, particularly Kerry James Marshall, though it seems to me it may be there in the work of Abstract Artists Jack Whitten and Mark Bradford as well.

Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man), 1973, Oil wash on board.

” I find, in tracing the course of the portrayal  of the Negro subject in art, a plague of distortions, stereotyped and superficial caricatures of ‘uncles’ ‘mammies,’ , and pickaninnies’,” he said6. Charles White is an important Artist because his work accomplished exactly what he set out to do. It does so most artfully, it seems to me. It’s full of life, depth and mystery. Yet, his work has an immediate directness that speaks to everyone as soon as they see it.

Now. And forever. Detail of just one part of the enigma of this endlessly fascinating work.

When I look at that “NOW” in Black Pope, I, too, wonder what the Artist was trying to tell us. Then, I quickly begin wondering what his reaction would be to living in this “NOW” and finding so little has changed. It’s terribly sad on one hand. On the other? It makes Charles White’s Art as relevant as its ever been.

UPDATE- My look at the two satellite Charles White shows concurrently at David Zwirner is here. One show is centered on the mural for Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles White’s last major work.

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Charles White, A Retrospective, 2018

Charles White: A Retrospective, by Sarah Kelly Oehler, Esther Adler and with a preface by Kerry James Marshall, published in 2018 by the Art Institute of Chicago, is the finest book yet published on Charles White and easily the best one in print. It’s a terrific introduction to the Artist that will also serve as a go-to reference for years to come thanks to the depth it goes into on such little-known areas like Charles White’s Photography as well as the inclusion of a full and detailed chronology and exhibition history. The reproductions are gorgeous. Easily recommended.

Fun fact- The inside of the dust jacket folds out to reveal this beautiful detail from Wanted Poster #12, 1970, suitable for hanging.

Charles White: Black Pope by Esther Adler and published by MoMA in 2017, is the other recommended, in print, Charles White book. MoMA curator Esther Adler does a very good job of analyzing Black Pope and relating it’s history, in the process looking at a number of other works from Mr. White’s career. While A Retrospective is the first choice for an introduction, for those looking to go deeper into one of Charles White’s greatest and most mysterious works, this book has the most information we are likely to get anytime soon.

Charles White, Black Pope, MoMA, 2018

* -Soundtrack for this Post is this video of Lead Belly, frequent subject of Charles White, performing. Purportedly the only film ever made of him-

My thanks to Stephanie Katsias of MoMA. 

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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  1. Exhibition Catalog, P.39 ↩
  2. Black Pope Exhibition Catalog P.8 ↩
  3. Sarah Kelly Oehler, Exhibition Catalog, P. 32 ↩
  4. Exhibition Catalog, P. 131 ↩
  5. P.51 ↩
  6. Exhibition Catalog P.24 ↩

Shahrzad Darafsheh: Transcending Cancer With Photography

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh, and others as credited.

Shahrzad Darafsheh, From her new, first PhotoBook, Half-Light. Courtesy of the Artist and Gnomic Book. Click any Photo for full size.

Meet Shahrzad Darafsheh-

Shahrzad was 32 when she was diagnosed with endometriosis, which progressed to cancer and resulted in her having a radical hysterectomy followed by chemotherapy. An extremely hard course of treatment for anyone- of any age. For this young woman, who’s thoughts were on looking forward to having a family, to have to do an about face and channel all her energies into a fight for her life, is unimaginable for the rest of us. Having been through cancer, myself, one thing I learned was that every patient’s journey is unique. There are, however, some commonalities to cancer that everyone who goes through it experiences, unfortunately.

Among them, there is not one aspect of yourself, or your life, that it does not turn upside down, and forever change.

June 26, 2018, from @shindal_, Shahrzad’s Instagram page. She appropriately added the only hashtag that fits- #fuckcancer.

Yet, through this very rigorous course of treatment that lasted until just recently, she remained true to herself, a tribute to her remarkable inner fortitude and character. Shahrzad used her Photography to help ground her and express what she was feeling, experiencing and seeing. The quiet dignity and strength she exudes in the video (courtesy of the Artist and Gnomic Book) forms a peaceful core at the heart of her extraordinary new PhotoBook, Half-Light, her first PhotoBook, published this fall by Jason Koxvold’s Gnomic Book.

With thousands of new PhotoBooks being released this year, it’s hard for any one of them to stand out. Half-Light impressed me to the point that it was one of my NoteWorthy First PhotoBooks for 2018, in a ridiculously hard year to choose a few out of all the terrific first PhotoBooks I saw this year. Yes, as a testament to cancer survivorship, it’s a remarkable achievement. Then, I found its images didn’t go out of my mind once I put it down. Yes, some resonated with my own cancer experience, particularly how you see the entire world differently all of a sudden with “new eyes.” Some are abstract and some realistic, but what struck me most is they all have a poetry that’s purely her own. It’s, also, a book that doesn’t lend itself to any one reading. In fact, its that way by design. Half-Light is laid out so it can be read from left to right, as is traditional in the English speaking world, and/or from right to left as is traditional in the Farsi of her native Iran. And so, it’s a journey with multiple endings, fitting for a newly diagnosed cancer patient, but also characteristic of life in general. It’s a journey with only one page of text containing Quatrain XIV from The Rubaiyat, the quatrain about the impermanence of all things, except death, on a first page in English, and from the right, a first page in Farsi, and from there it takes place through the eyes and, as she says above, in the mind.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

After I saw that video and experienced how eloquent she is, I hoped to be able to give her a chance to express herself a bit more, and to learn more about her and how she was doing. I reached out to Shahrzad via email in Tehran, Iran, and found her to be extraordinarily warm, open and grounded. Barely through her treatment herself, she was already speaking passionately about helping other cancer patients- especially women, in Iran, and around the world. I was thrilled when she generously agreed to answer some questions even though English is not her first language, and I have the honor of sharing her words here-

Kenn Sava (KS)- How are you?

Shahrzad Darafsheh (SD)- Hi Kenn, thanks for doing this interview.

KS- If we can start by going back to your start, how did you first get interested in Photography, and how did you become a Photographer?

“Her” from @shindal_, Shahrzad Darafsheh’s Instagram page, September 25, 2017.

SD- I was born in a family with great interest in art. My father was a carpet designer and a photography enthusiast. His was engaged with colors in his work, in different shapes and forms which was my early understanding of color. As a teenager I spent my time looking at his old prints, and also spent time with my brother watching great movies of that time. My mother put me in summer art classes like drawing, pottery and sculpture. These were my major acquaintances with art, and I liked photography the most. Very soon the camera became my closest friend and looking through the viewfinder the best way to see the world. It got more serious when I started to study photography at the university and since then I never stopped taking photographs.

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

KS- I think most people are new to your work, and so am I. I did see a book that might have had your work in it- The Saffron Tales by Yasmin Khan? So, I’m wondering what else have you done prior to Half-Light?

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photographs by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

SD- Yes. The Saffron Tales aims to show Iranian people and culture through their cuisine and I was commissioned to take photographs of people we met, the atmosphere, landscapes, etc., from north west to south of Iran. It was a two-year project and I learned a lot. Beside that, I had never published my photographs in a book before.

From The Saffron Tales, by Yasmin Khan, with Photography by Shahrzad Darafsheh.

KS- In the video, you speak of the home you and your have built a house in a suburb of Tehran that you love. Were you born and raised in Tehran?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Yes. We both were born and raised in Tehran. We always knew that we didn’t want to be living in the city because of all the pollution and craziness that the city offers and now we’re planning to go farther, out into nature. Since the economy is the main issue for better living and ours is so corrupted, our desire in moving lays under the layers of ambiguity.

KS- What’s it been like for you being a woman Photographer in Iran?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- I think being a female artist in itself is not so easy, as we can see the art history books are full of male artists. Everywhere in the world people are trying to bring more attention to female artists. I was aware that this year Tate Britain will exhibit six decades of women artists and according to them “female artists should be a central part of recent art history. Galleries have made progress in better representing female artists. But, it has been slow for too long. We are happy that it is speeding up.” You know this kind of thinking, and movement, is very rare in my country, so I think it’s bit harder here. I didn’t want to bring up women’s rights, censorship, everyday pressures and so much anxiety of everyday life but living in Iran is tied to these. Even though you can see more female artists, there is a long path for us to do what we love and make our living independent from our parents. I hope we can talk about it more another time.

KS- As we both know, hearing a doctor tell you, “You have cancer” is devastating. One of the worst things anyone can hear. How did you deal with it?

SD- It was few weeks after my laproscropic surgery and I was with my mom. The family worried a lot and all I wished was to lessen that pressure so I smiled! In just one second I decided that is how it’s going to be for me. I did several tests afterwards till I found out I had to take my uterus and both ovaries out. It was devastating.

April 6, 2018. During chemotherapy, away from home, staying with her mom. A Photo that appears in Half-Light.

My husband and I were trying to have a child before my first operation, doctors were saying that giving birth may reduce the symptoms of endometriosis, a reproductive organ disorder. But it caused infertility itself and I was going to lose every possibility of giving birth to a child.
I experienced a version of loneliness different from what I’ve experienced before and it had something to do with that smile. I never shared my fears, worries and tears with anyone till the end of chemotherapy.

The symptoms of “Chemo Brain,” August 3rd, 2018, during her chemotherapy treatments.

KS- It sounds to me that the choice of treatment must have been excruciatingly hard for you. As I wrote, after all my efforts and research, I made a mistake in my choice of treatment the first time I chose. What was your road like that led to your decision to go the treatment route you did- radical surgery followed by chemo?

SD- I knew there were no other choices rather than radical hysterectomy. I had tried alternative medicine for the endometriosis and it didn’t work for me. Maybe and just maybe it was my mistake. Some friends asked me what if I had taken the cysts out sooner? Nobody, even my doctors, know the answer. So I decided to let go of this thought. Also, there was a two month delay between radical surgery and chemo which frightened us a lot. But it all went well. Now the cancer is gone.

KS- Were there other doctors you could get opinions from? Did you get a second opinion?

Chemo Brian [Veins], August 11, 2018.

SD- I had my pathology samples rechecked followed with so many blood tests and they all showed stage one both ovarian and uterus cancer. I was in good hands. All three doctors that treated me are proficient. Unfortunately this is because they have too many patients. One of my surgeons operated on 5 more people after me that one day! I think despite lacking in other areas, the medical profession is at a high level in the capital and other big cities of Iran. Although they are very expensive and health insurances don’t cover most of it.

KS- What was it like being a newly diagnosed cancer patient in Tehran? Were there support groups? Did you have a choice of doctors or hospitals to be treated at?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Cancer patients are trying to talk more about their experiences to bring awareness. But, there are no support groups.

The first thing that every patient does is to google their situation in order to find out the experiences or others and if the treatment recommended to them has been successful. I did the same. I found some other patients on social media and it was a huge relief, especially during chemotherapy. I have never talked to them, I just watched their daily lives and their routines helped me stop thinking that I’m sick. And yes. There are several well equipped hospitals and great doctors but as I said before they are also expensive. I did a post in order to collect money for my first operation on Instagram selling some of my prints. And it was unbelievable. Half of my hospital bills were provided by my friends and complete strangers.

You can see the need of having support groups. It must also be simple to find them.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

KS- Is there health insurance in Iran?

SD- Yes there are several kind of health insurance in Iran. But the plans that offer the best coverage are government run and only full-time employees can have them. People who call themselves independent workers can make a full payment for a month in order to use benefit of the insurance. But in a private hospital no insurance is accepted, and they are more equipped than the other hospitals. So, I had no choice but to pay a lot of money and use the insurance for chemo.

KS- You told me you want to help start a NGO (Non-Government Organization). Can you talk about why this is needed, and your vision for it? How can others help?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- It’s a big thing starting and running a NGO. I don’t know even if they will let me!
But it’s a thing that kept my mind busy since chemo. I saw lots of men and women every three weeks, with needles in their veins, weak with a vague gaze trying to find someone to talk to. We Iranians are very supportive for each other most of the time. I rarely saw a patient alone. But there are some things that you can’t share with your loved ones. Even the cancer patient’s family can’t share their fears with the patient. We should have an actual place for patients and their families to find each other and talk. Not just some virtual spaces to type the feelings out. For that reason I need to have a bigger voice and that’s what I hope Half-Light will help me to reach. You are helping with this interview, Kenn, even before I start doing it.

KS- She didn’t say it, so I will- You can support Shahrzad by buying Half-Light, which was 200% funded on Kickstarter, while some of the 300 copies of this beautiful book remain. See BookMarks at the bottom for more information.

What would you tell other women diagnosed with endometriosis?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Some cliches matter a lot-
Listen to your body. Don’t be shy to be examined, do check ups. Eat healthy food. Exercise regularly. Avoid anxiety and stress. (I sound like Google!)
And if you want to have a child, be quick.

KS- What would you tell other women diagnosed with cancer?

SD- Don’t be afraid. It’s not just you. It doesn’t matter how you lived before but how you manage to live from now on. Cancer is not an enemy to fight, it’s a condition that needs to be understood. Because it brings you a whole new life even after you pass through it.
You will see the darkness and it’s important not to be the black-hole, let the light in.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

Breathe and live to the fullest.

KS- How long after you were diagnosed did you decide to start this body of work that became Half-Light? Besides cancer and your treatment, was there a triggering moment or event where this project began?

SD- It was a year after I was diagnosed with Endometriosis.
Funny that I had a strong fear of ovarian cancer at first but doctors told me it’s a benign cyst and rarely it turns to cancer, so dealing with its constant pain became my routine. I started to feel something growing in my body which was not a baby. It was my own tissues behaving offbeat. I wasn’t able to do most of my daily tasks half of every month for four years.

I think the pain was the triggering event. The weakness it caused and all my anxieties…

KS- But then, creating became therapeutic for you?

SD- Yes, it was. Looking for scenes to describe how I was engaging deeply with my body for the first time, gave me the ability to keep my distance with it so I could understand the situation better. It also kept my mind busy. Every progress in the state of my health came with the progress of my work.
I did scans with pleasure, it gave me very nice material to work with. I owe my sanity to photography.

KS- Where have you gotten all of your amazing strength from?

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

SD- Thank you for saying that. Honestly, I consider myself a strong person when I confront my body and mind. I’ve always loved challenging situations. Although I never thought it would be fear of death someday.
The body is in constant change as are our thoughts. In my opinion, both are controllable, especially at hard moments.
And I have a deep connection with nature. It always teaches me that nothing stays the same, be ready for change and accept what comes and how things happen.

KS- How long did you spend shooting this body of work?

SD- Since 2015. I choose to close it now after the test results came. So I’ve worked on this project for about three years.

KS- How did you find Jason (Koxvold of Gnomic Book)?

SD- While surfing on the internet. I felt a deep connection with his photographs. We were following each other’s work for a year. He wanted to see some of my work once but it was the begining of my journey through surgeries and so it didn’t happen. Jason reached to me, again, six months after that, when the chemo started. It was magical. For me, for my family and friends.

Working on my first book, this was how I spend my time during chemo. I say Half-Light is my child with cancer and it needs good care to grow.

From Half-Light. Courtesy of Shahrzad Darafsheh and Gnomic Book.

KS- Jason Koxvold is a Photographer & Artist in his own right. In two short years, the publishing company he started, Gnomic Book, has already made a name for itself as a producer of important, beautifully made PhotoBooks. Shane Rocheleau’s 2018 Gnomic Book, YAMOTFABAATA was one of my Noteworthy PhotoBooks of 2018. Jason’s own PhotoBook, KNIVES, is a powerful look at our changing world through focusing on one small area of upstate New York as it struggles to deal with the loss of its 150 year old knife factory- its largest employer, to China. At this point in the conversation, I reached out to Jason to learn more about how Half-Light came to light.

KS- Jason, how did you come to discover Shahrzad and this body of her work?

Jason Koxvold (JK)- About a year ago I saw Shahrzad’s work on instagram. I forget how I came across it, but it immediately resonated with me. We live in a time where so much work looks the same; it begins with one artist developing a specific visual language, then other artists mimic it, and then it becomes available as a VSCO preset and suddenly everyone’s doing it it. This was entirely not the case with Shahrzad’s work. I could see that she was telling a story, but I didn’t know what it was.

Each page of Half-Light is interleaved with a sheet that acts as a screen, as seen here, which presents an image that’s seen through a haze, or a veil- in “half-light.”

When you turn the “screen” page, you see the image, fully.

She didn’t appear to have a web site, so I reached out to her to ask if it would be possible to see a more coherent body of work – it was then that she told me that she was battling cancer, and that it was hard to find the energy to put something together for me in the short term.

KS- What were the difficulties in trying to publish this book, given that the Artist is in Iran?

JK- The biggest questions for me were the unknowns. I didn’t know if the work would get her into any kind of trouble; we hear stories of women attracting the attention of the authorities by showing their hair on Instagram, for example. I didn’t know if we would be able to send her any of her own books, from a US legal perspective and from an Iranian censorship perspective (we’re still waiting to see if the books are censored on arrival).

But in terms of the practicalities of making the work, it was surprisingly easy. We were able to have lengthy video conversations on Skype, exchange high-resolution files over Dropbox and Wetransfer, and even footage for the short film we made together about the work.

KS- What was your role?

The Farsi front cover of Half-Light, once removed from its bag, which is the back cover for English readers.

JK- Shahrzad was very open to my ideas around the form and sequencing of the book. My idea was around translucency and opacity, both from the perspective of the human body and the body politic of Iran. The sequence would create a journey from lightness to dark, as a Western reader – and the opposite, when read in Farsi. Shane Rocheleau helped with the sequencing as well; I always appreciate his ability to see not only the overarching story of a piece, but also connect individual images in more ephemeral moments.

KS- Shahrzad, have you seen the physical book yet? Jason told me you had not as of the NYABF in late September. If you have seen it, what do you think of it?

Shahrzad Darafsheh (SD)- Yes, I received my copy two months after it was published.
It looks and feels great. Jason did a great job with choosing the paper and everything. Such understanding in spite of such a long distance between us is unforgettable.

KS- Is there a community of Photographers in Tehran?

SD- Yes, there is National Iranian Photographer’s Society.

KS- I read that another Iranian Photographer, Shirin Aliabad, recently passed away from cancer. Did you know her?

Shirin Aliabadi, Miss Hybrid, 2008. The bandage on the nose indicates a nose job, which are popular in Iran, as the western “upturned nose” is highly sought after. *Photo courtesy The Third Line, Dubai

SD- Unfortunately this is the fourth female artist I’ve heard pass away from cancer this year. I’m familiar with her “ Miss Hybrid” series.

KS- Shirin Aliabad’s series, “Miss Hybrid,” was about “showing a Tehran that the Western media doesn’t show,” her husband and collaborator said in the New York Times. The Photographs in Half-Light have a universal feel to them, something that also might surprise Western readers- Most of them could be taken almost anywhere, something that will allow them to speak to a very wide range of viewers, though it’s an extraordinarily personal, and beautiful, book. Was this part of your intention?

SD- I’m very glad that it can speak universally. I never intended to do that. I think that’s how I see my world, Not really different from yours.

KS- What have you learned from cancer?

SD- To be me. To be here and now. To stop worrying and never stop loving.

KS- So…What’s next?

SD- I’m planning to have an exhibition and show Half-Light to a wider audience in Tehran.
Also I’m working on my proposal for gathering cancer patients together with the hope of bringing more quality to our lives.

-Though that ends our interview, the best thing Shahrzad shared with me was still to come. On December 23rd, she told me that her follow up tests after the completion of her treatments came back clean, with no sign of cancer! She said she was “super excited” about it.

Now, she can get back to sharing her beautiful, “full-light,” with the world.

BookMarks-

Half-Light by Shahrzad Darafsheh, which I selected as one of my NoteWorthy First PhotoBooks of 2018, is published in a first edition/first printing of only 300 copies, and is available from the increasingly impressive Gnomic Book, here. Jason Koxvold’s KNIVES and Shane Rocheleau’s YAMOTFABAATA, both published by Gnomic, are also recommended, and both are still available there as well. (All three are on sale as I write this.)

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Heaven Is In Your Mind” by Traffic, the first track on their first album, 1967’s classic Mr. Fantasy.

My thanks to Shahrzad Darafsheh and Jason Koxvold. 

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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R.I.P. Sister Wendy

Written by Kenn Sava

Terribly sad news reached me that Sister Wendy Beckett passed away earlier today at 88. As one of the countless millions who watched her religiously on TV and video, I loved the new style of Art criticism she brought based on her surprisingly open-minded insights and decades of study. As one got to know a little about her, her life as a cloistered nun made it seem incongruent that she would be able to discuss earthly Art so openly. But, she did, and in the process enthralled countless viewers, and readers, with her insights and passion. She was so dedicated to living a life of denial she didn’t go to museums! She learned about Art through books.

Sister Wendy outside the trailer she lived in on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery in East Haring, England. Photographer unknown.

To know the works only through books where even in the best ones you’ll see a given work from one, maybe two Photos, and then to finally SEE all of them in person?

Sister Wendy in New York harbor circa the late 1990’s with the World Trade Center in the background. The opening shot of PBS’ Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum.

Think how incredible it must have been for her to finally go to The Met, for example, having suddenly become a most unexpected television star, first for the BBC and then for PBS, when she made the terrific documentary about it for Sister Wendy’s American Collection. It makes me feel a bit guilty for having been to The Met a thousand and a half or so times since 2002.

Sister Wendy seeing Rembrandt’s Aristotle with a  Bust of Homer, 1653,  in one of the European Paintings galleries on the 2nd floor from Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum. Before it was moved, I stood there many times looking at it and thinking about what it was like for her to stand here and see it in person.

Isn’t it ironic, and strangely fitting, that for someone who discovered and learned so much about Art through books, so many others have discovered her and learned so much about Art through her books and videos?

It was a huge learning experience for her, too. I first discovered Sister Wendy through her articles in Modern Painters magazine. The name “Sister Wendy Beckett” at the top stopped me. Who? Her articles there are different than her books and magazine. They are text with few illustrations, but her “magic” shines through. Yet, as good as they are, these pieces were a drop in the bucket of Sister Wendy’s vast knowledge of Art and Art history, as we were to soon find out. Whoever chose her to be on television was brilliant. Becoming the host of video series on the BBC and PBS here in the US, she found herself having to explore Art in realms outside of her favorites. She said of this, “…one also has to remember that if I’m to do encyclopedic museums and give a fair idea of what’s in them, I have to move outside medieval art, Oriental art, ceramics, and the Old Masters. If I had stuck just to what I myself love best, every program would have been exactly the same, because each of these museums has superb holdings in my four favorite areas. But nobly, self-sacrificingly, thinking only of the good of others, I forced myself to investigate areas of art into which perhaps I had up to now taken little interest. As always happens with self-sacrifice, I was blissfully rewarded.” This is something I always keep in mind when I come across something new that doesn’t speak to me right away. I’ve learned to keep looking.

Sister Wendy, seen in the Egyptian Galleries at The Met around 1999, with Fragmentary Head of a Queen, 18th Dynasty, c1352 BC, a personal favorite of hers in all of The Met’s collection. I was astounded when I found that out- It’s such a small work, usually displayed in a small room, off the court leading to the famous Temple of Dundur that I’m sure most visitors to The Met miss it. Yet, Sister Wendy, somehow, found it, and spoke about the beauty and tragedy of this work and what it means in our time, 3300 years later, brilliantly. Just remarkable.

To this day, I can’t look at it without thinking about her. These two Photos are stills from Sister Wendy’s American Collection- The Metropolitan Museum.

As you watch, it’s hard to tell which areas are new to her and which aren’t, she speaks so passionately about all of them.

On the grounds of the Monastery. Photographer unknown.

After she completed the televisions series and wrote a number of books she retired from Art History and went back to the seclusion she lived in ever since. To her trailer, seeing or speaking with no one, save the nun who brings her meals and collects her laundry.

Though I’m not religious, Sister Wendy has been a huge influence on me, and I’m sure many, many others. She, and Lana Hattan, are the two reasons NighthawkNYC exists. While I begged her in these pages almost three years ago to come back to us, it was not to be. Now, I’m eternally grateful to her for creating the large body of videos and books she did, which is extraordinary given her beliefs and dedication to living a cloistered life.  It’s endlessly interesting to me that she chose to venture into the world this publicly for these few short years, but she gave the world a blessing that I hope will live on and inspire others for as long as Art does.

When you take it all into consideration? It’s remarkable we had her at all. Today, I give thanks that we did.

Her legacy will live on in the sheer joy of discovering Art that she inspired in others, and as a result, through all of those who’s lives she touched. Including countless people she never even met.

Sister Wendy gave a huge gift to all of us. 

BookMarks-

This is not a posed photo.

Without doubt, my favorite Sister Wendy book is Sister Wendy’s The Story of Painting. In my opinion it is the place to begin a Western Art History library. Book #1. The first one to get. Though out of print, copies are still to be found at reasonable prices. If you are getting it to be a cornerstone of your Art History library, get the hardcover version, since it will hold up much better than the paperback, which is too big for its binding in my experience. She covers the entire canon, through all it’s periods, in all its many styles. Right up to the fairly recent past. It’s surprisingly thorough for an overview. And? Her choices can be, well, eccentric, but almost no one can make a case for ANY work of Art like Sister Wendy. If a work spoke to her? She shows it. It doesn’t matter if the Artist is a household name, or not. That’s something that has been at the forefront of my mind ever since- Let the Art speak to you and pay attention to what does. All these years later? There’s no greater lesson to be learned in studying, or enjoying, Art than that. 

Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces  is every bit as good though it doesn’t follow the trail of time that Story of Painting does chronologically. Masterpieces is arranged alphabetically by Artist, so it moves all over time and periods as you turn the page. I recommend it for those who want to read her thoughts about works not included in Story of, which anyone taken by her will want to, and to those who can’t find Story of.  It’s done in almost exactly the same style as Story of Painting, but? If it ain’t broke…

Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting is also my favorite Sister Wendy video series. Luckily, it’s still available as part of Sister Wendy – The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass). For me as an Art lover? Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting is among the best things I’ve ever seen on television. It deserves to be as popular as Seinfeld. For a while there when it was originally on, it got to be about as close to it as might be possible for an Art History show. It’s still the best series of its kind there is. 

After that,Sister Wendy’s American Collection is an extraordinary chance to visit six of the greatest American museums with Sister Wendy. Virtually every moment of them is a wonder, the revelations are constant, thought-provoking and timeless. As I wrote three years ago, I was flabbergasted that she was able to visit “my Museum” and point out things that almost no one would know. She made it seem “new” to me and that’s something I found shocking from someone who had never been there, and I still do. 

I long felt that I would have given anything to have gone to a museum with her. This was as close as I got. Here’s your chance- to go to six of them with her. As with any Art she spoke or wrote about? You’ll learn something new- every single time. 

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Grace,” written and performed by Jeff Buckley on Grace. About it, Jeff said, “It’s about not feeling so bad about your own mortality when you have true love.” I chose this because though she was a cloistered nun who lived as a hermit, Sister Wendy well knew of and felt deeply about the trouble, the “fire” in the world, which she said is “not what it should be. It’s an aggressive, unloving world,” in her comments about the Fragmentary Head of a Queen, 18th Dynasty, c1352 BC, seen earlier, which had been broken by forces or people unknown to us. And? Because she had true love…

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*except as credited)

Let’s go book shopping! As I list PhotoBooks I consider NoteWorthy, let’s remember the Bookstores that are still left where you can actually see these books. The Strand Bookstore, NYC, is one of those I frequent. I hope there is at least one near you. Click any Photo for full size.

Another day. Another chance to look at PhotoBooks, to see life, and the world, through someone else’s eyes, to learn something and just maybe have a revelation. I look at A LOT of PhotoBooks (and Art Books). Nary a day passes that I don’t see one/some somewhere. In bookstores, used bookstores, museum stores, galleries, book fairs, pop-up shops, garage sales, online- you name it. Both, just released PhotoBooks and those I’ve only known through legend. I’m getting close to eating, sleeping and breathing Photo & ArtBooks. Why? I use them to research my pieces, to learn about Artists known & unknown to me, and to explore that fascinating phenomenon that is the PhotoBook- which, in its ultimate form, is a work of Art unto itself. A third of those I see I never look at, or think about, a second time. About 40% I do either look at again or think about again. And, far too many of them I purchase. (For the record- Yes, I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I bought every book on this list.)

MoMA PS1, Long Island City, scene of the recent New York Art Book Fair. In case you don’t know, there’s a quite good full time Art & PhotoBook store tucked inside, in addition to the excellent magazine shop off the lobby, right behind that grey wall to the right.

So, after all of this looking, I’ve decided to share a few of those here that have turned out to be especially memorable, or “NoteWorthy,” as I’m fond of saying (There’s no such thing as “best” in the Arts, in my view. I don’t believe in comparing Artists or creative work). Compiling this has been very hard.

Depth of Field. The scene in just one of the many rooms at the New York Art Book Fair (NYABF) @ MoMA PS1, Long Island City, September 21, 2018. I handed my camera to Kris Graves who took this Photo with it from behind his table.

First, we live at a moment when there are more PhotoBooks being produced than ever before. It seems there are an incalculable number of publishers and Artists creating books at a speed I doubt anyone can keep up with. So, as many PhotoBooks as I look at represents only a small percent of those released. Hey, I really tried!

William Eggleston: Black & White. The cover image shown on pages 82-3 of Steidl’s Fall/Winter 2017/2018 Catalogue. I was very much looking forward to seeing what revelations this might hold  in 2018 after the showing of Eggleston’s black & white work at The Met a few months back. Where are you? Phone home. *Steidl Photo. 

Another thing is a bit complicated. Publication dates have become hard to figure. Some of the bigger PhotoBook publishers announce books and show them in their catalogs up to one year before they ever show up in stores here (physical bookstores). The brand new hardcover version of Steidl’s Fall/Winter 2018/19 catalogue now even contains a section featuring “Previously Announced” Books (i.e. books originally scheduled to have been out this year)! Some “Previously Announced” books never do show up (Steidl now completely omits the “Previously Announced” William Eggleston: Black and White. ?). And then, a book that appears as a newly released book in a bookstore here may have come out to the rest of the world in 2016 or 2017. How to treat those books? Do they “count” as eligible for 2018 lists? After mulling this over the past few months, I’ve decided to give lesser priority to publication dates and go by when I first saw the book appear in stores. So, one or two of these may have been released over the past few years, though most of them say “2018” in them. For me, the date of the book isn’t as important as the impact its had on me. That’s my criteria. Maybe, you’ll agree, maybe you won’t. Either way, I encourage you to make your own list.

The Rare Book Room at Strand Bookstore. How many books released this year will end up here?

Ok. With all of that out of the way, here they are, listed in no particular order, in a special edition of my regular BookMarks feature. (First, a special note-If you like what you find on NighthawkNYC, I hope you’ll consider supporting it so that I can continue to spend the countless hours and pay the expenses its taken to keep it going these past 3 years- without running ads. If you would like to, you can make a donation through PayPal by clicking on the box to the right of the banner at the top of the page that will take you to the Donation button. Your support is VERY much appreciated.)

***NoteWorthy PhotoBooks, 2018***

How do they do it? Teamwork. Lester Rosso, left with Paul Schiek, the creative masterminds behind TBW Books, and in front of their sign, reveal one of the secrets of their magic that, it seems to me, a number of others are now trying to emulate. Good Luck with that! Their secret? They consistently make excellent books with top Artists. NYABF, September 21, 2018.

-Gregory Halpern, Confederate Moons with Jason Fulford’s Clayton’s Ascent, Viviane Sassen’s Heliotrope and Guido Guidi’s Dietro Casa, part of TBW’s excellent Annual Series 6. If I were to recommend one new book this year, Gregory Halpern’s would be it. When I look at it, I see a frozen moment in life in America, 2017, seen in the shadows of the solar eclipse, an instant when nature reminds us that everything we stress out about or fight about pales alongside the power IT holds. My look at Confederate Moons is here. 

Gregory Halpern, left with the beard and the glasses, and Jason Fulford, right, in the green striped shorts, authored two of the four volumes in this year’s TBW Annual Series here sign them at TBW’s booth, NYABF, September 21, 2018. PhotoBook Business 102- You know you’re doing something right when Artists like these two want to work with you. Mr. Fulford has his own respected publishing house, J&L Books. Mr. Halpern, the 2016 Paris Photo-Aperture PhotoBook of the Year Award Winner, is fresh off his nomination to join Magnum Photos.

–Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs, Aperture. The only portfolio Diane Arbus produced during her lifetime is beautifully reproduced from the only set in a public collection, which happens to be the only one with 11, not 10, Photographs. This is one of the books that will be essential for anyone interested in Diane Arbus henceforth. Aperture says “it will never be reprinted.” Nuff said.

Instant classic. Diane Arbus: A box of 10 photographs. Seen at Aperture Gallery & Bookstore, an NYC Photo mecca.

-Harry Gruyaert, Harry Gruyaert (Retrospective with the red cover), and Harry Gruyaert: East/Westboth Thames and Hudson- Two books that solidify the Belgian-born Photographer’s place alongside the better-known “early masters of modern & contemporary color Art Photography,” including Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Saul Leiter, et al. (A term that puzzles me since color in fine Art Photography can be traced back to, at least, Sarah Angelina Ackland, circa 1900). More on both books in my recent conversation with Harry Gruyaert, here.

One of the irreplaceable things about physical book stores are its people, like Miwa Susuda of Dashwood Books, seen here. Miwa is, also, a writer and a PhotoBook publisher with her Session Press. In 2017, Session Press and Dashwood Books released the fine Blue Period / Last Summer by the legendary Japanese Photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki, a copy of which she holds. Seen at Dashwood on October 24, 2018.

-Cristina de Middel– The Perfect Man. Cristina de Middel is an Artist who should win an MTV Video Vanguard award. Huh? What I mean is that I can think of no other Photographer who’s books are consistently pushing the boundaries of what a PhotoBook is and can be. This is just the latest in her series of compelling books, most of which are built around subjects that only the most imaginative would say “There’s a PhotoBook in this!” While that certainly wins her major points in my book, if she wasn’t, also, a world class Photographer, she would just be a curiosity. She is. But, you don’t have to take my word for it- Magnum Photos nominated her to join the world’s leading Photographic collective in 2017. The Perfect Man starts with looking at the largest Charlie Chaplin impersonator festival (with many of its subject posed in scenes reminiscent of Mr. Chaplin’s immortal “Modern Times”), and winds up being a broad look at Indian masculinity, and then a look at social customs Indian women are faced with interacting with them. It’s another book that surprises, and another book, like her classic The Afronauts1, that shows the new and old worlds colliding at full speed in unexpected ways.

Kris Graves holding the contents of LOST, which comes as a set in the spiffy orange box with blue lettering under his hand at his +Kris Graves Projects booth at the NYABF, September 22, 2018. His newly released A Bleak Reality is seen in the foreground.

-Kris Graves, et al, LOST +Kris Graves Projects. A ground-breaking (sorry!) work in a number of ways. First, it’s a daring, TEN volume box set by a smaller publisher featuring the work of a number of established Artists (including Lois Conner and Lynn Saville) along side that of others who are on the way up (like Zora J. Murff, Joseph P. Traina and Owen Conway), each contributing a PhotoBook on a different city around the world. Second, typically for +KGP, the cost is quite reasonable, for both the individual books or the set. And last, taken as a whole it’s a stunning example of what a well-run, Artist-run publishing house can achieve. Did I mention that each component book stands, and stands out, on its own? Also in 2018, A Bleak Reality by Kris Graves from +KGP is a powerful look at 8 sites where young black men were murdered by police officers, a collection of his work that first brought Kris to my attention at AIPAD this past April, as I wrote about here.

Multi-talented Artist & Gnomic Book publisher, Jason Koxvold, center, with Gnomic Book Artists Shane Rocheleau, left, and Romke Hoogwaerts, right at the Gnomic Book booth at the NYABF, September 22, 2018.

-Shane Rocheleau, You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals (or, YAMOTFABAATA as it reads on its spine), Gnomic Book. A book that looks at the legacy of being white and male in America, quickly expands in scope to include any number of related effects, artifacts and institutions. It also reveals that the words “think small” apparently do not exist in Mr. Rocheleau’s vocabulary. The results are a first PhotoBook that’s extremely ambitious in its scope, biblical in its effect, gorgeously shot with a magical combination of subtlety and abstraction, edited like a Stanley Kubrick film, and exquisitely produced down to the smallest detail- (like its beautiful, hypnotic, and seductive to the touch, cover)…Phew! Along the way, it’s also chock full of indelible images that combine to make it linger and linger on in the mind later. A remarkable achievement, particularly for a first PhotoBook- the only first PhotoBook in this Noteworthy PhotoBooks, 2018 section. Limited edition of 500 copies. My recent Q&A with Shane Rocheleau is here. 

Rosalind Fox Solomon, Liberty Theater, MACK. Something of a marvel, another entry in this Post of a book that consists of a body of work decades in the making, this one is special. Culled from 400 Photographs taken in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, across the south, these 77 show a wide range of glimpses into the complex issues of race and racism, class and gender divisions that could be pivotal moments from 77 films that each stand on their own while provoking a world of feelings and reactions. Except comfort. The title speaks to a performance, and her website says the images are “poised between act and reenactment…” Now 88, Rosalind Fox Solomon, who like Diane Arbus, studied with Lisette Model in the 1970s, shares something of Ms. Arbus’ mystery and power in images that demand repeat viewing, here, in a tightly edited volume that quietly stuns as often as it shocks, aided by yet another powerful essay by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, who’s first PhotoBook also appears on this list.

***Noteworthy First PhotoBooks***

–Shahrzad Darafsheh- Half-Light, Gnomic Book. Iranian Photographer Shahrzad Darafsheh was diagnosed with cancer at age 36. But? She hasn’t let it stop her creativity or her work! It seems to me that anyone who’s been through cancer, or knows someone who has, can relate to her new first PhotoBook, Half-Light. It’s, at once both intimately personal, and universal, a book that looks inwards and outwards at the same time. Designed to be read either in western style left to right, or right to left, the custom in Farsi, one time I went through it it felt like an out of body experience. Cancer changes your life- forever, and it also changes how you see life, forever. Here is a Photographic record of the early days of this very talented young Artist’s cancer experience, seeing the world anew and turning her lens on herself, and her surroundings with wondering eyes. Its 300 copies are far too few to reach the audience this book deserves, so don’t wait long. It’s somewhat miraculous that Gnomic’s Jason Koxvold somehow found this work and overcame all the layers of problems inherent in working with an Artist living in Iran to produce such a beautiful and important book.

Shahrzad Darafsheh’s Half-Light.

-Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa – One Wall A Web. Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa has been one of the most astute and urgent voices writing about Photography and PhotoBooks for some time now. His writing has appeared in a wide range of places, including in a number of PhotoBooks, like Jason Koxvold’s excellent Knives. With One Wall a Web the world gets to see his first collection of his Photographic work. Born in Uganda  and living here for a number of years, One Wall is a far ranging look at American life, culture and society with a focus on the black reality in this country in two sets of original Photographs surrounding a section of appropriated vintage archival Photographs. It’s so wide-ranging it even masterfully weaves Allen Ginsberg’s classic poem Howl in. It’s already clear to me that One Wall a Web is one of those books that define this moment, as his friend’s Shane Rocheleau’s does in its way. It’s a book people will be discussing, referring to and looking at for many years to come. As I write this, about 70 copies remain of the first edition.

 

Roma Publications co-founder Roger Willems holds a copy of One Wall a Web, by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa at Roma’s booth at the NYABF, September 22, 2018.

-Jo Ann Walters- Wood River Blue Pool, ITI Ithaca  Named after a river and a pool near her hometown of Alton, Illinois, a journey through its 120 pages it makes it quickly apparent that yes, still waters run deep. A book over 30 years in the making, it’s a veritable time capsule of people and places, seen with a strong and singular eye, here largely cast on women and girls around her hometown, and elsewhere from Minnestoa to Mississippi cry out for extended pondering- on the women and/or children depicted, their situations and surroundings, and the moment. Coincidentally, Ms. Walters also teaches at Purchase College on the same Photography faculty with Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa. My thanks to Kris Graves for  making me aware of this book. He did so purely on the book’s exceptional merit as something I should see. Modestly, he did so without mentioning that he was once one of her students, which I found out later. Jo Ann Walters’ tree has many branches. Now? We finally get to sit under another one with wonder at her achievement. I’ve found it makes an interesting pairing with the following-

-Petra Collins- Coming of Age, Rizzoli. A minor sensation when it was released, causing first printing copies to instantly vaporize, surprising no one more than its publisher, Rizzoli, who scrambled to produce a second printing, which finally materialized after a few months absence. Coming of Age, (a perfect title in more ways than one), touched a nerve with its subject generation, and with the esteemed Artist, Marilyn Minter, who interviews Ms. Collins inside. It’s easy to see why. Petra Collins Photographs her subjects the way they would like to be seen, and shows sides of them and their lives the rest of us never see. While other Photographers have garnered more attention for more contrived work in this genre, Petra Collins is the one to watch, in my view.

-Rose Marie Cromwell, El Libro Supremo de la Suerte, TIS Books/LightWork. I lived in Miami and South Florida, where it’s impossible to escape the flavor and influence of nearby Cuba. Here’s, an amazing look at the real thing, shot over 8 years while the Artist lived in Havana. It’s a thunderbolt, filled with color, as  you’d expect, but it’s also full of a poignant intimacy that surprises. Another book with an instant buzz that saw copies flying out the door, and a long line for signed examples at TIS’ Booth at the NYABF. El Libro Supreme de la Suerte (The Supreme Book of Luck) supremely deserves it.

If you are able to pick only one book from that group? You are a better man or woman than I am.

PhotoBooks are all we sell! One wall of titles at Dashwood Books.

***NoteWorthy Photo Related Book without Photos***

In this “decisive moment,” the foreshortening got the better of my auto-focus.

-Henri Cartier-Bresson- Interviews and Conversations, 1951-98, Aperture. I picked up The Mind’s Eye, Cartier-Bresson’s writings on Photography and Photographers, which didn’t have the insights I was looking for. Interviews and Conversations does. On every single page. Essential. A reference book for the ages.

***NoteWorthy Reissues***

The New Arrivals wall at Printed Matter, presenters of the New York Art Book Fair. An amazing store that contains multitudes of worlds in the form of Artist’s books by umpteen thousand Artists and Writers. How do they know where all of them are? I never bother to try to find something- I just ask. Extra credit if you can spot the next book to appear on this list.

-Masahisa Fukase Ravens, MACK. (Pictured almost smack dab in the middle, above, in its grey slip case). Believe the hype. Shot in the aftermath of a divorce, this is an unforgettable masterpiece, one of the great achievements in PhotoBook history in my view. It says 2017 inside. I don’t care. I’m listing it here as a public service announcement. After being first published in 1986, it was out of print for the better part of 30 years! The word is copies are running low. Get it before it goes out of print. Again. I’m listing Ravens, also, to acknowledge MACK’s excellent series of reissues that has seen Alec Soth’s classic Sleeping By The Mississippi and Niagara, among a number of others reissued, making them affordable to students and Photography lovers, again, after long absences that has made them available only at very high prices on the rare book market. Bravo! The next selection is another one…

Paul Graham, center, with Lesley A. Martin of Aperture, left, discuss a shimmer of possibility at its re-release. AIPAD, April 13, 2018.

-Paul Graham, a shimmer of possibility, MACK. Though reissued once before, as a one volume paperback, MACK has finally released the book Paris Photo-Aperture gave their “The Best PhotoBook of the Last 15 Years” award to in 2012, in its original 12 volume format (which sold out in less than 3 months in 2012). A revolution when it was first released, its influenced countless books that have come since. Including a few on this list. Limited edition of 500 hand signed sets.

-Daido Moriyama: Record, Thames & Hudson, A selection from Nos 1-30, beginning in June 1972 of the magazine, Record, that the great Japanese Photographer continues to release to this very day. At age 80, he’s now up to No. 39. When I added them up, Numbers 1-30 would cost a thousand or so dollars, IF you could find them all. This beautiful selection from them sells for about 50.00, and is sure to bring many more eyes to the work of one of the most admired, and influential, living masters of Street Photography.

-Luigi Ghirri- It’s Beautiful Here, Isn’t It… Aperture. With 2008 1st Printings selling for over 300.00 per, my thanks to Aperture for issuing a 2nd printing this year otherwise I would have never seen it! Ghirri’s Kodachrome is the place to start exploring his work (especially in MACK’s gorgeous reissue, which seems to be disappearing), but this is a very nice selection of works from throughout his career. Intro by William Eggleston.  

Roy DeCarava & Langston Hughes- Sweet Flypaper of Life, First Print Press/David Zwirner Books. Roy DeCarava is one of the unsung masters of contemporary Photography, who is quietly undergoing a renaissance that’s seen a few of his books reissued at long last in honor of the Photographer’s 100th birthday in 2019. First published in 1955, it features 141 DeCarava Photographs chosen by Langston Hughes who then supplied an accompanying narrative. His aim, he said, “We have so many books about how bad life is. Maybe it’s time to have one showing how good it is.” It’s that, and more, as it shows life “Uptown” in the mid-1950s in a way unlike that seen in any other book. 

***NoteWorthy Catalog of the Year**

-Sally Mann- A Thousand Crossings. It’s going to be a while before another book coming along surpassing this as a one volume reference/summary/monograph of Ms. Mann’s work to date. Beautiful. Throughout.

-Saul Leiter- All About Saul Leiter– It came out in Japan last year, and has just been released here. I’d still recommend Early Color as the place to start exploring Saul Leiter, but this is an excellent second choice and provides more of a complete sense of the man’s work over his career. With all due respect to his black & white work- Saul Leiter is a supreme Photographic Artist with color and the effects of light, and that is the work of his I will always be drawn to, and there’s a lot of it in this beautiful volume. My look at the recent Saul Leiter: In My Room show and book is here.

-Luigi Ghirri- The Map and the Territory, MACK. Focused on his work from 1970s and 1980s this is a beautiful almost 400 page look at a visionary Photographer, who, was the only name Stephen Shore mentioned when I asked who he felt deserved more attention. He told me Luigi Ghirri was the Artist he used to recommend, before the internet did away with little known Artists. Which brings me to…

***NoteWorthy “Non-PhotoBook” of the Year/ Holiday gift of the Year***

The 3 Stereograph viewing stations, each containing 10 different stereo Photographs of New York, 1974, at the Stephen Shore Retrospective at MoMA, May 23, 2018.

–Stephen Shore, Stereographs, New York, 1974, Aperture. Hey, it counts- its got an ISBN number…and 30 Stereo Photographs! I don’t know how many other visitors to the Stephen Shore Retrospective at MoMA were thinking, “Wow. This is COOL!,” when they sat at one of the 3 stations, each containing 10 of Mr. Shore’s Stereographic Photographs. Well, I was. Now, you can have your own! Hurry. Aperture only produced 400 sets each containing a “Stephen Shore” signature model viewer (cool!) and all 30 of the works seen at MoMA (ditto). Each set includes a card hand signed by Mr. Shore. Don’t sleep on it. I hear they’re going fast. All of those who already own it that I’ve spoken with said they hoped more images would be made available. Hear, hear. My piece on the monumental Stephen Shore Retrospective at MoMA is here. 

Stephen Shore: Stereographs, New York, 1974, published by Aperture.

***PhotoBook Discovery of the Year (Regardless of Publication Date)***

-Lewis Baltz, WORKS, Steidl, 2010. WORKS is THE most extraordinary box set I have yet seen. Period.

When you look at it like this, it could have been called “MONUMENT.” Note- There are two editions of WORKS. Mine is the first edition, 2010. the later WORKS- Last Edition edition adds the subsequent Candlestick Point (2011) and Texts (2013), which they just lay on top of this box. Both of those books are available separately, so you can create your own Last Edition. Their Last Edition also comes with a booklet containing Lewis Baltz’ Last Interview, which, unfortunately, is not available elsewhere.

Since discovering WORKS, Lewis Baltz has become one of the few Artists who have effected the way I see the world, and one of even fewer to effect how I think about what I see. Mr. Baltz passed away in 2014 at 69 and this was a project he worked on when he, apparently, knew the end was coming. The result is that WORKS is the complete 10 volume edition of his Photography as the Artist wanted it to be seen. The care and attention to detail he brought to this edition, matched by Gerhard Steidl and his team, make it the definition of “definitive.” It houses the career work of an Artist who’s work expanded from the so-called “New Topographic” approach to Photography to including how the forces that control man’s uses of the land have extended into virtually every realm of human life. Inside, the entire journey can be taken in one place, where its continuity and interconnectedness can be fully appreciated as it can be nowhere else, in drop-dead beautiful quality printing. Lewis Baltz was an Artist who while producing Art based in what he saw around him created a body of work that, also, warns about where this was (and is) all heading. In my view, this makes him one of the most important Photographers of our time. Each of the 1,000 copies is hand signed by the Artist!

For those not wanting to make the investment in WORKS (currently 600.00 and up), there is the one volume Lewis Baltz– the catalog published in 2017 to accompany the first posthumous retrospective of Mr. Baltz’ work in Madrid, and so another entry for NoteWorthy Catalog, 2018. (It reached me in January, 2018.) The best one volume survey of his work is a great way to get the feel of both his accomplishment and the interconnectedness of the various series he produced, (and yes, they are interrelated). Even more than A Thousand Crossings, it’s very hard for me to see another book surpassing Lewis Baltz as a one volume monograph, especially given its particularly beautiful Steidl production and superb essays by Urs Stahel and, particularly, Artist Walead Beshty.

And so, in my book, there are no “winners,” no “losers” among Artists. ALL Artists who have created a PhotoBook (since that’s what we’re talking about here) this year are Winners in my book! CONGRATULATIONS! Seeing so many books and speaking with so many Artists & publishers has given me a real sense of how hard it is to produce a book today, particularly in this country.

For the rest of us? Get out there, look at some PhotoBooks and see what speaks to you. For me? I look forward to seeing what’s coming next. And? I will be looking for it…

11pm, East 17th Street @ Union Square. It can be a lonely road seeking PhotoBooks in the dead of night, which I actually was. But, wait! “Hey, man. Got any PhotoBooks there I should know about?”

*-Soundtrack for this Post is Impossible Year by Panic! at the Disco from Death of a Bachelor.

My previous pieces on Photography are here.

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  1. Both Ms. de Middel and Vivienne Sassen, mentioned earlier, have come under controversy for their work in, and about, Africa. ↩

Jack Whitten- Secrets From The Woodshed

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

Dead Reckoning I, 1980, Acrylic on canvas, 73 x 73 inches. Click any Photo for full size.

When Jack Whitten left us, far too soon, this past January 20th, his hard earned, long-time-coming place among the most important and innovative Painters of his time was assured. This was most recently brought home for me in Spring, 2017 with the excellent Jack Whitten at Hauser & Wirth, where I was completely enthralled by the selection of 19 Paintings, all from 2016, save one each from 2015 and 2017.

Quantum Wall (A Gift for Prince), 2016, Acrylic on canvas with tivar. 190 x 84 inches(!), seen at  Jack Whitten, at Hauser & Wirth, February 7, 2017.

Jack Whitten often said his Paintings were “made,” not “Painted1.” In creating these Paintings, he worked with what he called “tesserae,” a chunk of acrylic that had been cut from a large slab of acrylic poured into a mould that were then applied to the canvas like mosaics. Walking through Jack Whitten last year, each Painting was so meticulously “made,” I couldn’t believe he could make so many of them in one year, in his late 70s.

Installation view of the first gallery of Jack Whitten at Hauser & Wirth, February 7, 2017. Quantum Wall (A Gift for Prince), seen above is on the back wall.

Standing front and center in the main gallery, the Paintings were accompanied by something I never saw before- a Jack Whitten Sculpture(!)- Quantum Man (The Sixth Portal), 2016. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Surrounded by the Paintings, I came away struck by how different it seemed from them. During the run of the show, the Art documentarians, Art21, created this short piece on Jack Whitten. It serves as a wonderful introduction-

Earlier this year, the collected journals, essays and public talks of the Artist were published in the massive 500+ page book, Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed (see BookMarks at the end). But, there was more…MUCH more hidden in that woodshed. It turned out the Artist had been creating a body of Sculpture going back to 1963 that he kept to himself, only having shown them twice in Crete, where he had a home and where he created many of his Sculptures. Except for that one work included in his last Hauser & Wirth show in 2017, he had never shown his Sculpture in this country (as far as I know).

Until now.

I’ve never seen the likes of this before. Lichnos, 2008, named after a somewhat dangerous Greek fish, at the entrance at The Met Breuer, November 23, 2018.

A few years ago he finally decided to show them. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see the resulting show, Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963-2017 (henceforth, Odyssey), when it opened at the Baltimore Museum of Art on April 22nd, before moving to The Met Breuer on September 6th.

To say it’s a revelation is a huge understatement. Odyssey isn’t “A” revelation- It’s a revelation in so many ways, I can’t count them.

The meaning of my life- in one Photo. Installation view of the first gallery shows Jack Whitten’s earlier Sculpture surrounded by five of his Paintings. I was filled with wonder each and every time I entered this space.

When I entered the 3rd Floor at The Met Breuer to see it for the first time on October 5th, I had walked no more than 100 feet into the first gallery, when I realized, “THIS is why I go to Art shows.” Meaning, I live for the chance to discover something new and great. Standing in a spot where I could take in the whole room, I felt like I was, truly, in a different world- a world that, somehow, had managed to synthesize the past and the present in a completely unique and fresh way that pointed straight ahead. That visit, I never made it out of the first room shown above. So transfixed was I by every work it contained, it took me 3 subsequent visits to see all of the show. Each of my eventual eight visits left me filled with wonder at this wider view of the sheer scope and range of Jack Whitten’s creativity and talent. I felt that I was standing in a space that was somehow sacred. Each work reverberated with a deeper essence greater than the sum of its parts or its stunning design. Each has a spirit of its own.

As I moved through the show, at the pace of a frozen glacier (remember them?), I was struck by the feeling that it’s so sad that having overcome so much in his life Jack Whitten didn’t live to see this utter triumph- a show mounted by two of this country’s great Museums that once and for all establishes him as a Master Artist of our time.

And then, another revelation hit me, in the form of a question- WHEN was the last time a great Artist who had worked his entire life creating a major body of work in one medium (in this case, Painting) passed away and then ANOTHER major body of his work, in a completely different medium (Sculpture) was discovered? If you can think of one, let me know.

While Jack Whitten’s Sculpture feature wood, that’s not all they consist of. His brilliance extended to his taste, evidenced in the materials he carefully selected for these works. A partial list includes lead, copper, a wide range of wood (see this list-2), fishing line, various bones, and Gorilla Glue & saw dust are combined with any number of more common objects. Yes, those “blades” seen in the 3 striking works in the foreground are marble.

Moving through the show, it became apparent that the style of Jack Whitten’s Sculpture evolved every bit as much as his style of Painting did. New materials came into the mix, creating a vocabulary that extended dramatically beyond wood, but the essence of their spirit remained consistent.

The White House, September 22, 2016. *Photo by Cheriss May arts.gov

Jack Whitten was born (in 1939) and raised in Alabama before becoming discouraged by the racial turmoil he had encountered and seen first hand, particularly in the demonstrations he took part in3. He moved to NYC in 1960 to study at Cooper Union. Here, he was able to learn from “both sides,” he put it, encountering some of the most well known white and black Artists of the time, including Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Philip Guston, Romare Bearden, Franz Kline, Andy Warhol and many others4. In fact, throughout his life, Jack Whitten met many of the great figures of his time, from Dr. Martin Luther King to John Coltrane to President Obama, seen above awarding him a National Medal of Arts for 2015. More importantly, he felt he learned from each one. He also saw some of the great cultural and societal events of our times- including Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech, after having met him a few years earlier. Jack Whitten was, also, an eyewitness to the first plane flying into the World Trade Center on 9/11 from 14 blocks away! Incredibly, his voice is heard on the only video there is of that plane impacting the North Tower, by the Naudet brothers who were making a documentary on the New York Fire Department. Following them around, that morning they answered a call about a gas leak at the building Jack Whitten owned on Lispenard Street. The Naudets happened to be filming the firemen who were trying to find it when the plane flew right over their heads! Jack Whitten’s voice is the one heard making the expletive as it crashes into the North Tower5. He subsequently made one of his most powerful and important Paintings, in my opinion, 9.11.01, in 2006.

9.11.01, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 240 inches. Not included in Odyssey. Photo- Hauser & Wirth

I’m not the only one who thinks so. Earlier this year, the Baltimore Museum of Art, who had sold works by Andy Warhol and Franz Kline (both of whom Jack Whitten knew) to fund new acquisitions astutely used some of that money to buy 9.11.01. The Museum’s Director, Christopher Bedford called it, “the most significant acquisition I’ll ever make for a museum.” He went on to say that he feels that “in 100 years it will be regarded as highly as Matisse’s Blue Nude, 1907, currently considered the crown jewel of the Museum’s holding6.”

All throughout his life, he followed his own path. Shortly after arriving in NYC, he visited the City’s Museums, where he saw the work of African Artists in The Met and the Brooklyn Museum that had the biggest and longest lasting influence7 on his Art, especially his Sculpture, which he began about 1963.

Power Figure: Male (Nkisi), 19th century, Angola or Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“All of this stuff was inspired by those figures. All of it. That’s the source,” Jack Whitten said of his Sculpture and these early African figures he saw in NYC museums (per the Audio Guide).

Homage to Malcolm, 1965, front, Homage to the Kri-Kri, 1985, left, the Painting, Black Monolith III For Barbara Jordan, 1998, rear center and Power Figure: Male (Nkisi) 19th century from Angola, via The Met’s permanent collection, right, one of the possible influences on Jack Whitten’s Sculpture, who visited The Met after moving to NYC in 1960, to study its collection of African Art.

Finding inspiration, (Odyssey includes some of the African, early American and Mycenaean Art from The Met’s permanent collection that may have influenced him), he also honored the purpose of many of these older works. And so, we see works that are “Power Figures,” “Guardians” (including one for wife, his daughter as well as himself), “Totems,” or “Reliquaries,” while others reference animals, including Owls, Scorpions, Orfos, Lichnos and Sharks. Two reference contemporary figures (something his Paintings do more often)- the then recently deceased Malcolm X, created in 1965, above, and the fascinating John Lennon Altarpiece created in 1968 (seen further below). In discussing his Homage to Malcolm, I was struck by the Artist’s comment on the Audio Guide regarding the “rough to smooth” character of the work, explaining, “The man had many stages to his personality. It’s another example of white folks trying to squeeze black people into one dimensional people. But, we’re not that.”

The Afro-American Thunderbolt, 1983-84

It then became apparent that a number of other Sculptures in this show also move from “rough to smooth,” each with exquisite craftsmanship.

Detail.

One of the reasons I think Mr. Whitten may have kept his Sculpture to himself is that many of the works are personal. He created a series of Guardian figures for his family, and this one for himself. As he said on the Audio Guide, “Growing up in the South, we had no protectors, so I built that one for myself, and it has served me well.”

The Guardian III, For Jack, 1986. Notice the blue section underneath, made from coiled fishing line. These “hidden” colors appear in a number of his Sculptures, where they seem to glow from underneath.

With, apparently, only those closest to him knowing, Jack Whitten managed to rewrite Sculptural history for the 20th and 21st centuries, beginning by forging his own way with African Art that by-steps the influence of the European modernists and Cubism, (including no less than Picasso, who’s own monumental 2015 Sculpture show at MoMA I wrote about here) of the early 20th century8.

Even though he studied at Cooper Union, looking at his career, it becomes obvious he learned every bit as much, if not more, from his conversations with other Artists, his observations and through discovering his own techniques- in both Sculpture and Painting.

Black Monolith II (For Ralph Ellison), 1994, Acrylic, molasses, copper, salt, coal, ash, chocolate, onion, herbs, rust, eggshell, razor blade on canvas, 58 x 52 inches.

Detail of the center of the “head.”

If Odyssey only consisted of Jack Whitten’s Sculpture, it would still be a major show. That it ALSO contains 16 major Paintings provides an unprecedented opportunity to see works from the same periods in different medium side by side. The whole is brilliantly installed, bringing different combinations of work into view at the same time as the visitor moves around. The sum of its parts takes Odyssey to an entirely different level into the realm of historic, in my opinion, where it now joins the list of truly great shows to have appeared at The Met Breuer. It’s becoming a formidable list, possibly unequalled in NYC since it opened on March 15, 2016. Imagine that.

Bush Woman, 1974-5, in front of Delta Group II, 1975, the only work by the Artist in The Met’s collection, as far as I know. The superb installation of Odyssey is apparent in the juxtaposition of these two works, where the similarities and the differences are apparent and striking. Given both, it’s endlessly fascinating to me that Jack Whitten finished these two pieces in the same year.

“My inspiration for painting comes from the wood. All of my ideas in painting come from the wood. My head is bursting!” he said, referring to his Sculpture9.

John Lennon Altarpiece, 1968, seen in front of Black Monolith VIII (For Maya Angelou), 2015, 84 x 63 inches, left and The Guardian I, For Mary, 1983, right.

I bore those words in the front of my mind as I looked closer. During the last 3 of my 8 visits, I tried hard to see what he meant, and, truth be told, I am still trying to connect his Sculpture to his Painting. Then again, that’s the nature of the mystery of inspiration.

This is NOT by Gerhard Richter. Its Slberian Salt Grinder, 1974, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 72 x 50 inches, by Jack Whitten that predates the German Painter’s “Squeegee Paintings” by about 15 years! Displayed “In Memoriam – Jack Whitten” at MoMA, seen on October 26, 2018.

He’s said this connection begins with his Slab series of Paintings, like Slberian Salt Grinder (on view at MoMA at the moment, “In Memoriam – Jack Whitten,” and so not included in Odyssey), above. “Painters use paint. I am a painter. My years of carving wood have been the single most important influence on my painting. The Slab paintings from the 1970s are elementary form derived directly from my sculptures10.” These works may have been a visual “response” to Jazz immortal John Coltrane’s famous “sheets of sound.” Jack Whitten created these “planes of light,” as he called them11. Interestingly, Jack Whitten’s Slab works pre-date Gerhard Richter’s work in a not dissimilar style, done with a squeegee, by over a decade12, something he has rarely been given credit for. Whitten created a 12 foot long tool he called the “developer,” that looked like a long wooden rake, to create the Paintings in this period, as he spoke about in the Art21 piece earlier.

The Saddle, 1977. A title with a few interpretations, including sexual.

Regardless how they directly influenced his Sculpture, as he didn’t in his Paintings, it quickly became obvious that Jack Whitten wasn’t going to stand still here, either. The sizes and shapes continued to be completely unpredictable and, taken as a whole, often without recognizable precedent. Still, the craftsmanship is always masterful, the combination of elements surprising and fresh, and the result unique. Added to all of this, over my visits, I found they don’t give up all their secrets quickly, or easily.

Detail revealing the tiny women’s portraits among the metal work, possibly referencing the sexual interpretation of the work’s title? As I took this Photo, a visitor next to me said, “The woodwork is beautiful…it’s insane.”

The visitor was right, of course. In fact, Jack Whitten earned his living for years using his masterful woodworking skills, until he was finally able to support himself through his Art. His feelings about his struggles and lack of greater acceptance and recognition are poignantly revealed in Notes From The Woodshed.

Anthorpos #1-3, 1972-4, three of the earlier Sculptures in Odyssey flanked by two of his Black Monolith Series of Paintings- VII Du Bois Legacy: For W.E. Burghardt, 2014, left, and VI Mask (Updated Version for Terry Adkins), 2014 right. (That’s a covered Breuer window in the back)

In August, 2017, the Artist said- “Wood is elemental matter; it is alive, organic and waiting for someone to release its spirit…that’s my job. When I find an interesting log, I study it and wait for the subject to reveal itself. I have logs that have been resting in my storage space for more than forty years. I do not impose the subject, it is within the log13.”

Memory Container, 1972-3, left, with Black Monolith, V Full Circle: For LeRoi Jones A.K.A. Amiri Baraka, 2014, Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 63 inches. Jack Whitten and LeRoi Jones (at the time) used to go and hear Jazz together at The 5 Spot Cafe (which I wrote about recently). About him, Jack Whitten said, “He made this full circle in life. He had a strong center anchor. It was very important for me to meet a black person who could be that outspoken.” (Audio Guide)

Mr. Whitten may have been influenced by Ancient Art and African Art but he took his own approach to it- “Whitten’s private logbooks show him pointing to the need to relate to African objects without the interfering filter of earlier modernisms (“Picasso’s European interruptions,” he called them14.”) He proceeded to do this in any number of ways, from creating his own forms, to adding a plethora of personal and found items to a number of these works, including Memory Container, 1972-3.

Detail of the right side of container of Memory Container as seen in the prior Photo.

All the while, he was Painting. “The point I want to make with painting is that abstraction, as we know it, can be directed towards the specifics of subject- a person, a thing, an experience. My goal is to use painting to build abstraction as symbol15.” His Black Monolith series of Paintings, dating back to the 1980’s are stunning examples of what he was speaking about.

Black Monolith, IX (Open Circle For Ornette Coleman), 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 84×63 inches. Mr. Coleman, who Jack Whitten met at the 5 Spot Cafe decades earlier,  is the only Artist Mr. Whitten memorialized who I met. He was extraordinarily nice and unforgettably generous to me.

As remarkable as seeing the previously unknown body of Sculpture is, perhaps equally remarkablly ALL 11 Black Monliths are included in Odyssey! In my view, they may be his supreme achievement in Painting.

Black Monolith IV For Jacob Lawrence, 2001, Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 96 inches.

Detail.

There are worlds in each work.

Gray Matter, 2010, stands in front of Atopolis: For Edouard Glissant, 2014, Acrylic on 8 canvas panels, 124 x 248 inches, on loan from MoMA.

Just when I was convinced of the abstract nature of Jack Whitten’s Sculpture, I happened on this Photo hanging on a wall in the Chelsea Restaurant, The Dish!

Taken as a whole, Odyssey presents a body of work that is so wondrous, so singular, so strong, so endlessly creative that it continually astounds.

Technological Totem Pole, 2013. Jack Whitten refers to the marble base as “the charger,” and he spoke about seeing totems from Alaska and elsewhere at the Brooklyn Museum. “Later on I began to think of them as computer based. Information is stored in them, about the tribe, the history of the people…When I use modern technology, it’s a way of connecting the present to the past.” (Audio Guide). And yes…the clock is telling the correct time.

Take the final Sculpture in the show for example, Technological Totem Pole, 2013. In place of all the items Jack Whitten had included on his earlier work that may be seen as having been influenced by work from the past, here he adds artifacts of the current time to a pole in a work that can be seen as a “tribute” to our time, or maybe a statement about what we will leave behind- it’s up for each viewer to decide.

Detail.

For me, like every piece that proceeds it, it’s another example of Jack Whitten’s endlessly creative mind, as well as being a testament to how far his Sculpture came in 50 years.

On a personal level, Jack Whitten’s work moves me greatly. When I first realized it, I wasn’t quite sure why. Is it his story of staying true to his vision and constantly creating fresh, unique, and innovative work? That’s part of it, I’m sure. So is that he didn’t live to see the wide acclaim this Odyssey has received. The other part is that his Painting, and now his Sculpture, both comprise bodies of work that embody our time, I feel, witnessed in the range of people he tributed as much as by how. Even more than that, having never had the chance to meet Jack Whitten, when I listen to him speak and see him on video, I’m always taken by what a “regular guy” he was, yet he was someone who responded to many of the things that speak to me- from his taste in Jazz (including Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane- neither of who I got to see perform live as he did), to his feelings about life and the world around him. Then, there’s the other side of Jack Whitten- a mystical, spiritual side combined with a visionary. In that sense he reminds me of Jazz’ Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman- you’ve never heard anything like them before. At first listen you might think they’re nuts, but closer inspection reveals an extraordinary rigor to every single note the write or play. While countless Musicians pick up an instrument, very very few can play it like no one else can.

In an Art age dominated by “movements” from Abstract Expressionism to Pop to Minimalism and beyond, Jack Whitten’s Art looks like no one else’s. He is his own movement. An Artist who literally “made” his own way, and kept going, kept moving ahead, no matter what. Even through serious illness towards the end.

“That painting came out of a lot of pain,” Jack Whitten said in the Art21 piece earlier. Black Monolith XI (Six Kinky Strings: For Chuck Berry), 2017. Jack Whitten speaks about the “battle” he fought with illness to create this amazing work, one of his final pieces, in the Art21 video Posted earlier.

With Odyssey, we get to finally see one of the great “secrets” in Modern and Contemporary Art. It’s almost as if there is suddenly now a “second act” to Jack Whitten’s career- over 50 years in the making. But, being able to finally see his Sculpture in concert with his Painting, we also get a bit of a sense of his full accomplishment- for the first time. The result is it’s going to demand a complete rewriting of Mr. Whitten’s achievement and accomplishment in the Art history books. They will now begin with the words-  “Jack Whitten was one of the most important Painters and Sculptors of his time.” EITHER one of those would be more than enough to make him a major figure in Art. Both? That brings to mind the names of Duchamp, Man Ray, Barnett Newman, Burgoyne Diller, Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois, Ellsworth Kelly, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Lee Bontecou, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, fellow Alabamian Thornton Dial, and Picasso, among contemporaries. Rarified air.

In February, 2017 the Brooklyn Rail published an interview with Jack Whitten which ended with interviewer Jarrett Earnest asking him “What do you see as  the role of art today?”

He replied- “I use the word antidote. There is so much shit going on in society that I don’t believe in—the only thing I believe in is art. I have nothing else. Art is the only thing I’ve got to go on, and I see it as being able to provide an antidote to all this evil shit that is going on. And it is evil—I cannot stress that enough. Obviously, it’s going to get much worse too. We haven’t seen nothing yet. All of us will be tested—that I can promise you.”

Phoenix for the Youth of Greece, 1983

Detail. In the circular compartment, Jack Whitten placed an artificially aged handwritten note that reads- “Using the bones from the past, we can understand the present and foresee the future.”

It’s always sad for me when a truly great Art show ends. As Odyssey closed, I consoled myself by looking forward to the opening of another (as yet, unannounced) show- the long overdue, full scale, Jack Whitten Retrospective. Because, If Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963-2017  doesn’t make the case that NOW is finally the time for it? Nothing will.

BookMarks-

2 books. About as big a selection of Jack Whitten books as you are likely to find these days.

Jack Whitten: Odyssey: Sculpture 1963–2017 – With the closing of Odyssey, the real work of studying, appreciating and learning from this newly discovered body of work can begin. It’s gotten off to a great start with the exceptional catalog for the show. Given how few books are in print about Jack Whitten, it’s easily the best place to start exploring his Art and learning about him. I first saw it at the NYABF in September, before the show opened. I knew right then this would be a major, unforgettable show. Highly recommended.

As I mentioned earlier, Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed, released earlier this year, is over 500 pages of journals and other writings by the Artist that have an effect not unlike that of reading a diary. While it includes technical detail regarding his work  in progress at whatever time, already completed, or to come, the Artist’s writings are also full of feelings, anecdotes, realizations and exhortations. As such, it’s a fascinating glimpse into both the Art world of his time and a record of his journey, and often, his struggle. Particularly recommended to Artists, it’s very readable for the general reader (it does not include any illustrations of his Art) and will serve as an invaluable reference book and exceedingly valuable historical document going forward.

If you can find it, Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting, published in 2015 by the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, is the catalog for the last, great Jack Whitten traveling museum show of the same name, the largest show of his Paintings to date. Now out of print and becoming harder to find, it’s very well done, with both valuable essays and a decade by decade selection of the Paintings, the only overview of his Paintings published to date.

It’s my hope that the study and appreciation of Jack Whitten’s work is only beginning, which should be the case for an Artist I feel will be one of the more influential figures in Painting & Sculpture going forward. There are, fortunately, some excellent video interviews with him currently up online. As good as the available books are, there’s nothing like hearing him speak.

My thanks to Leah Straub of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, for her assistance.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is Lonely Woman by Ornette Coleman, from the prophetically titled The Shape of Jazz to Come, recorded in 1959, around the time Jack Whitten met him at the 5 Spot Cafe, which I recently wrote about.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1. Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture 1963-2017 Exhibition Catalog (henceforth Odyssey Catalog), P.39 ↩
  2. Woods used by Jack Whitten in his Sculpture include-American white oak
    Black mulberry (a staple throughout his Sculptural career)
    and white mulberry
    Cretan walnut
    Olive wood
    Wild cypress
    Carob wood
    Serbian oak ↩
  3. Graphically described in this 2017 interview. ↩
  4. Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting, P.19 ↩
  5. Jack Whitten: Five Decades of Painting, P.43-4. ↩
  6. //news.artnet.com/art-world/baltimore-deaccessioning-proceeds-1309481 ↩
  7. //brooklynrail.org/2017/02/art/JACK-WHITTEN-with-Jarrett-Earnest ↩
  8. See the discussion beginning on p.20 of the Odyssey catalog. ↩
  9. Jack Whitten: Notes from the Woodshed, P.395. ↩
  10. Odyssey Catalog, P. 38 ↩
  11. //prod-images.exhibit-e.com/www_alexandergray_com/Whitten_Walker_Blog_9_22_20150.pdf ↩
  12. //www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/richter-abstract-painting-809-3-ar00027 ↩
  13. Odyssey catalog, P.38 ↩
  14.  Odyssey catalog, P.21 ↩
  15. Jack Whitten, Alexander Gray Associates Exhibition Catalog, 2013, P. 3. ↩

Burt Glinn: Meet The Beats

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

It’s impossible to walk around NYC and not be walking on history. More often than not? You’re walking on a spot where something historic happened. Usually, time and “progress” have left no reminder. You have to be an historian to know, or a long time resident to remember. Unless someone pulls your coat. Just this happened to me this past May 5th as I was walking down Cooper Square between East 4th and 5th Streets in the Lower East Side. When someone did…

Once upon a time…On THIS spot stood The Five Spot Cafe, Cooper Square at East 5th Street, Lower East Side, (LES), NYC, May 5, 2018. Well? It’s gone now. But, is it? Chalk Editor’s Note- Add “This” in front of “was once…” Click any Photo for full size.

This story begins with chalk on the pavement, and a box.

From everything I’ve heard about it, as a lifelong Jazz fan, and in preparing this piece, considering the Musicians who performed there, the Artists, Writers and Poets who frequented it? In the late 1950’s, the Five Spot was THE hippest place on earth. A temporary sign seen on the fence where it stood, above the sidewalk shot, May, 2018, shows Billie Holiday (who made some of her final performances here), Ornette Coleman, who changed the course of Jazz History, and a very rare Photo of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane performing here, top, by unknown Photographers.

Shortly after the very moment I felt that tug on my coat, a discovery long hidden in the estate of a Magnum Photographer who passed away in 2008 would bring history back to life in the form of a PhotoBook and 2 shows. Before I get too far ahead of myself…

Magnum Photos has been around as the world’s leading Photo Agency, documenting what is history now for 71 years, since being founded by legends Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson along with David “Chim” Seymour, George Rodger, William & Rita Vendivert and Maria Eisner in 1947. Along the way many of the greatest Photographers of our time have been members at one point or another. Today, it’s going as strong as ever, with as well-rounded a roster as its possibly ever had, including Harry Gruyaert, who I recently interviewed, and other living legends, including Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt and Susan Meiselas, as well as a veritable “all-star team” of younger Artists counting Alec Soth, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Cristina de Middel and, in 2018, Gregory Halpern among them.

Those who come now are standing on the shoulders of giants of Photography.

With so many luminaries in its already storied history, it’s easy for one to slip into a bit of a lack of attention from time to time. Take Burt Glinn for example. Born in Pittsburgh in 1925, he joined Magnum in 1951, one of the first group of Americans in the member owned organization. He became president of it in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. He achieved fame for his international work, including beautiful Portraits of Russia and Japan in color, as well as for his coverage of the Cuban Revolution, which saw him somehow gain access to Fidel Castro and his inner circle. Back at home, he profiled Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Katherine Hepburn, while also shooting Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to NYC. Burt Glinn is one of those Photographers who might illicit a “who?” from some today, but as soon as you start looking at his work, that’s quickly replaced by, “Oh, that’s his. So is that. So is that…” Like this one, perhaps the most famous image of Andy Warhol with Edie Sedgewick-

Andy Warhol with Edie Sedgwick and Chuck Wein, 1965, New York City. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos.

Or, this unbelievable moment-

Nikita Khrushchev in front of the Lincoln Memorial, 1959, Washington, D.C. “Without a doubt,” the image of his that he most closely identifies with1. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos.

But, there are many sides to the work of Burt Glinn. In fact, so many sides, some are still coming to light 10 years after his passing in 2008. While working on an upcoming Burt Glinn Retrospective, Michael Shulman of Magnum Photos, Elena Glinn, the Artist’s widow, and Tony Nourmand of Reel Art Press discovered a box labelled “nonconformists.” Inside were never before seen Photos of those legendary “nonconformists,” the Beats, along with his notes and an original Jack Kerouac manuscript! The Retrospective was immediately put on hold while Reel Art Press published the beautiful PhotoBook, Burt Glinn: the beat scene, in July, that includes the first color Photographs of the Beats ever published. Some of these images were then shown at the Beat Museum, San Francisco, in July, and now others, including many not published in the book, were exhibited at Burt Glinn: Photographs of the New York Beat Scene at New York’s renowned Jason McCoy Gallery, a 40 year fixture in the famous NYC Art Mecca, the Fuller Building, on West 57th Street, from September 12th through October 12th.

Installation view of the entrance to, Burt Glinn: Photographs of the New York Beat Scene, at Jason McCoy Gallery.

The NYC Art world is a mysterious place to most people on the outside, so having the rare chance to walk through a show in a famous gallery with its curator, particularly this show’s curator, Samantha McCoy, who works regularly with the Photographs of this Artist and his estate, at Magnum Photos, was a special privilege. It turned out that Samantha was also curating a show by Artist Carla Gimbatti at ChaShaMa– at the same time! “He’s a chameleon,” she warned me before we began. As we turned the corner into the first gallery, I saw what she meant.

Jack Kerouac holds forth to an enraptured audience, Seven Arts Coffee Gallery, 1959. This is how it started- with a poet or writer reading his work aloud in coffee shops, bars, or wherever they could.  I’d love to know if that woman laughing in the back was laughing at something Jack said, or not. Everyone else looks very serious. The beret became a Beat trademark. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

As we looked, it immediately became apparent that these aren’t just any Photos of the Beats (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, LeRoi Jones, who was later change his name to Amiri Baraka, and Gregory Corso). They’re a fascinating window into their daily lives, an invitation to hang out with them in moments public and private, and, in a revelation, they also offer an unprecedented chance to see the Beats in the company of a number of Painters and Sculptors, including Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, David Smith, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Larry Rivers, and Musicians, including David Amram and Lee Bostic. These images fire the imagination as they draw you in to ponder just what was being discussed. In addition to being beautiful Photographs that add another dimension to Burt Glinn’s achievement, like so many of his other works, these are vitally important historical and cultural documents. To top it all off, the book and the shows mark the first time color Photographs of the Beats in their early days have been seen!

Young Helen Frankenthal her in her studio working on an abstract expressionist painting. I always look at her work and wonder how she Painted it. Now, I have an idea. Helen Frankenthaler at about age 28, rarely seen at work in this period, shown in the act of creation in her NYC studio in 1957, in color! Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

Given her experience working with Burt Glinn’s Photographs at Magnum, I asked Samantha what surprised her about this newly discovered body of work. “Before learning about the release of the beat scene by Reel Art Press, I was actually not at all familiar with this particular body of work,” she said. “It was a surprising and exciting discovery. I found it particularly impressive to learn that Burt had followed the Beats on his own accord2. As Elena Glinn informed me, ‘It was Burt’s roommate, Clay Felker, who had said to Burt, ‘We have to do something with these nonconformists who are all over the place. Go after those guys. Go to openings.’ Burt just did it, and he went to everything. He went to the poetry readings, to the gallery openings, to artist’s studios.'”

3 years younger than Jack Kerouac, a year older than Allen Ginsberg and 3 years older than Helen Frankenthaler, Burt fit right in with the Beats and the Artists.

” I love how Burt is able to transport you to this pivotal time in New York; he had this uncanny ability to really capture the atmosphere in such a way that you feel you are there,” Ms. McCoy added. “He was a true chameleon in that sense. And then, of course, to put this series into the context of everything else he was shooting at that time is all the more riveting. He was an immensely gifted storyteller.”

Speaking of telling stories, Samantha McCoy was, also, doing just that in the way she installed the show. As we see in this particularly interesting grouping she chose. Upper left, Dancer Anita Huffington and Willem de Kooning, 1957 NYC, Painter Barnett Newman at a gallery opening, 1957, NYC, right. Lower left and lower right- 2 Photos from the series Jack Kerouac holds forth to an enraptured audience, Seven Arts Coffee Gallery, 1959. As she says, Burt Glinn seemed to be everywhere.

I asked Samantha about the her groupings that seem to tell “short stories” within the larger body, and about her approach to installing this show. She said, “This is a very keen observation, and was definitely on my mind while curating, though I must say Burt’s work lends itself to this type of curation.”

Four from the series, Things get rough. John Rapinic restraints Corso who hurls insults at reporter: “But you don’t understand Kangaroonian weep! For sake thy trade! Flee to Enchenedian Islands”
And foreground, wizened Kerouac plays it cooler, 1959, NYC. That is Burt Glinn’s title for this series!

She continued, “There were so many anecdotes that spoke to me when I was making the edit, so I suppose I was hoping to give each of them life. The Beat life in New York was full of small stories, in different landscapes and pockets of New York. I wanted the viewer to have a feeling of all of them, as well as the scope of this movement.”

This wall, in particular, is full of unexpected intimacies. It starts with LeRoi Jones at home, Newark, New Jersey, USA, 1959, seen, apparently unawares, sitting in the window of his Jersey City home, right, and includes Photos of Helen Frankenthaler hugging David Smith, far left and below, as well as the group of four seen just earlier.

Particularly interesting to me is that these Photos were taken at the exact moment when the first generation Abstract Expressionists were seeing their hold on the cult of culture in NYC begin to gravitate to the Beats3, which would continue well into the Rock ‘n Roll era of the 1960s and beyond. NYC, and indeed, the world, would never be the same.

HOW was Burt Glinn able to get this shot? Painter Helen Frankenthaler and Sculptor David Smith in Frankenthaler’s studio, New York City, 1957. My favorite image in the show. David Smith is a very under-appreciated Artist, today, in my view, but not, apparently, by Ms. Frankenthaler.

Installation view of the excellent David Smith: Origins & Inventions, Hauser & Wirth, NYC, December 21, 2017.

No less than half of the Photos included in the show (22) were taken in 1957, the year On The Road was published, the very moment the Beats rose to cultural and literary prominence. That same summer, on stage at the Five Spot, the great Thelonious Monk was joined by the equally great John Coltrane, recordings of which were discovered and released in 1993. A further 14 of these Photos were taken in 1959, the year that Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, and David Amram, featured here, also appeared in Robert Frank’s legendary film, Pull My Daisy. And, 1959 was also the year that Burt Glinn received the Matthew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri. Heady times, indeed.

Burt Glinn’s startling color Photos of the Beats are the first ever published. Here- A Chess interlude during a break in the revelry at the Blackhawk, a night spot on the corner of Turk and Hyde Street where eminent jazz performers are often to be found in action. The player making the move here is Earl Bostic virtuoso of the loud  tone alto, 1960, San Francisco.

Although he later went to San Francisco to Photograph the Beat scene there, only one of those shots is on view here. “I really wanted to stay focused on the New York work,” Samantha said.

The crowd outside the Five Spot. I love that the sign scream THIS is the place! Unknown date. Unknown Photographer.

In New York, along with the famous Cedar Tavern, perhaps no where was more the place to be in the day than the Five Spot. There aren’t many Photos of the club, or what was going on inside of it, so Burt Glinn’s are an invaluable addition to those we have, taking us right into the midst of it.

Live from the Five Spot. This looks like Burt Glinn was actually right onstage! David Amran entertains at the Five Spot Cafe, 1957. Then, as now, a French Horn is still unusual to see in a Jazz club. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

Then, there are the recollections of those who were there4. I asked gallery owner Jason McCoy what he thought of the show, he said, “The photographs and the New York light brought back a nostalgia and sense of smell I associate with tenement hallways in Chinatown and in the Bowery, all places frequented by artists in those days!”

A back table at the Five Spot. left to right are sculptor David Smith, Art guru frank O’Hara, 
a poet; Larry rivers and grace Harriman, both artists; an economist, Sydney Rolfe, dancer Anita Huffington, and Bill Hunter a neurosurgeon. The lady with her back to the camera is painter Helen Frankenthaler. Peak crowd is about midnight. In quieter moments a poet will sometimes read his verse to the music. Bar jumps till 4 AM, NYC, 1957. A wonderful composition. My guess is that this is the corner seen in the top, right of center in the preceding Photo. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

During this time, Burt Glinn was not only busy documenting the activities of the famous and the rising stars, he was also, everywhere else. He showed up at parties where none of the “big names” were. He haunted side streets as well as the bars, all of this enabled him to capture the full flavor of the scene, catching its atmosphere as he strove to find its essence. He’s even in Washington Square as the sun rises on a new day catching a lone minstrel with an acoustic guitar putting the night to bed with a song.

It’s a new day rising. A streak of loneliness runs through these Gordy evenings on the town. Today, a lone guitarist plays the last music of the night, NYC, 1959. Photo by Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos courtesy Jason McCoy Gallery.

No matter where he is, in his photos you’re right there- sitting at a crowded table, having drinks, and discussing literature, poetry, Art, life. You’re hunched in a corner of the Five Spot listening to the band, though you can’t even see all the musicians. Or, you’re listening to the Beat poets recite or test drive their latest creation at 2 a.m. You’re in the studio with Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, and others. You’re going over to visit LeRoi Jones…

For the Beats, it was the best of times. Soon, millions of young people (including four lads from Liverpool, England, who would borrow the name) would aspire to be part of what was happening right in front of Burt Glinn’s lens. Back when very few knew.

Walking into history. Samantha McCoy told me chose this work to close the show as a “fitting farewell.” From left to right: Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and an unidentified woman. New York City, USA, 1957.

Jack Kerouac knew. He wrote a piece to accompany Burt’s Photographs called “and this is the beat nightlife of new york,” which reminded me why I went through a “Kerouac period.” Fittingly, the original was found with them. Where it belongs. Like in a time capsule. A parchment testament of the times.

But not the New York Times, these are the On The Road times. The Dharma Bums times. The Howl times. The Subterraneans times. The ‘Round Midnight times. The Pull My Daisy times.

The times they were a-changin.

5 Cooper Square, NYC, October, 2018.

BookMarks–

As seen at The Strand Bookstore.

the beat scene: Photographs by Burt Glinn– Includes that terrific essay by Jack Kerouac, “and this is the beat nightlife of new york,” 170 Photographs, including the first 70 color Photos of the Beats in their early days ever published, and many Photos that show more of the public, and private, life of the Beats, the Artists, Musicians and others. It’s a unique PhotoBook because it shows seminal figures in 20th century Art, Music and Literature in close proximity as they live their lives at what was a key moment in each of their lives, and the culture of the world, along with other folks the world either never knew or has already forgotten, who, as Samantha McCoy said, “were more friends and drinking buddies.” Recommended.

Allen Ginsberg Photographs, 1990- is the other classic book of Photographs of the Beats. Ginsberg is a Poet whose work seems every bit as relevant today as it was when he wrote it, and his Photographs came to public attention, and acclaim, late in his life. They deserve the acclaim, in my opinion. Andrew Roth agreed and he included Allen Ginsberg: Photographs in his The Book of 101 Books: Seminal PhotoBooks of the Twentieth Century, one of the standard references on the subject for many. To date, I have only seen 1991 second edition copies and I found the reproductions lacking, though they are printed in a nice size. Perhaps the paper hasn’t aged well, I’m not sure. Perhaps they’re better in the out of print first edition, or perhaps this important part of Mr. Ginsberg’s oeuvre needs a new edition. In that case, unlike Allen Ginsberg: Photographs, he will no longer be able to oversee it, unfortunately. Recommended, if you can find a copy who’s reproductions do justice to the work.

*-Soundtrack for this Post is The Thelonious Monk Quartet: Live at the Five Spot: Discovery!, a very rare meeting of two Musical giants of the 20th century, Monk & John Coltrane, (let alone whoever may  have been in the audience that night), part of which you can hear, here-

My thanks to Samantha McCoy of Magnum Photos, and to Jason McCoy and Amanda Konishi of Jason McCoy Gallery.

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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  1.  https://web.archive.org/web/20091229204516/http://www.nppa.org:80/news_and_events/news/2008/04/glinn.html ↩
  2. Later, he was given an assignment to Photograph the San Francisco Beats for Holiday Magazine. Some of these images were last, and only, seen there, and in a few other magazines of the time. The rest have not been seen previously. ↩
  3. Partially due to the tragic death of Jackson Pollock, Jason McCoy’s uncle, on August 11, 1956 at 44 ↩
  4. You can read the recollections of some of the Musicians who played there, here. ↩

Brimstone And Blood: Q&A With Shane Rocheleau

Written by Kenn Sava. Photographed by Kenn Sava & Shane Rocheleau.

Five Photographs, in the recent Aint-Bad Curator’s Choice, Issue No. 12, and the accompanying interview with Stephen Frailey who chose him to be included, were enough for me to put Shane Rocheleau on my “watch list.” It turned out I didn’t have to wait long to see more.

This Photo is called Broken Stake in the book. I’ve also seen it referred to as Bleeding Stake. As he reminded me when we spoke, a stake has a number of purposes…and meanings. This one also serves to create a riveting image. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals. Click any Photo for full size.

Coming upon the Gnomic Book publisher’s table at the recent LES Fotobookfair, Mr. Rocheleau was on hand to sign his new Gnomic release, and first PhotoBook, You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals (or YAMOTFABAATA, as it reads on its spine and so, is referred to). There he was discussing what he considers to be a good job of gluing the endpapers as I approached. When he paused, I asked him if I could see the copy he was holding.

You are Masters of the Fish and Birds and All the Animals, by Shane Rocheleau, his first book, just published by Gnomic Book

The YAMOTFABAATA experience begins with the cover, which I swear has hypnotic qualities. The book is so beautiful to hold you don’t want to put it down. Opening it and looking inside, my initial conception of his work was quickly obliterated as I moved through the beautiful volume he handed me. I immediately realized that this was no mere collection of fine Photographs. Each Photo is exquisitely considered- both in its execution and in its placement. Here is a powerful book of visual poetry that casts a far ranging net capturing slices of the essence of the American condition in 2018, in macro and micro terms, with an epic impact that borders on the biblical.

Or, YAMOTFABAATA the first book by Shane Rocheleau, just published by Gnomic Book. It’s a beautiful publication, clad in a stunning iradescent grape fabric called Bamberger Kaliko Duo. Its gleaming gold edging, carrying over the gold of the font. The whole thing has the feel of a Bible, echoing to the quote from Genesis in the title.

I had gone to the LES FBF to see two new books- Kris Graves’ A Bleak Reality, and Jason Koxvold’s Knives, that rarest of PhotoBooks that has its own tote bag (sold separately). While I came away very impressed with both, YAMOTFABAATA turned out to be my biggest discovery at the fair. As I looked through it, and Knives, I was struck by the similarity and the differences of the two books, both published by Jason’s publishing company, Gnomic Book.

Shane Rocheleau, left, with his good friend, multi-talented Artist/Photographer and Gnomic Book publisher, Jason Koxvold, at the MoMA/PS1 Book Fair, September 22, 2018. The spiffy Knives tote bag is seen over Jason’s shoulder.

Some background- Shane Rocheleau received his MFA in Photography and Film from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2007. He has taught photography as an Assistant Professor of Art at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, as an Adjunct Professor at numberous institutions, and presently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at VCU. IMDb lists him as the Writer, Director & Producer of the a 2008 short, Tide. YAMOTFABAATA is indeed a book that has a cinematic feel to it. As I wrote in my Third Anniversary Post in July, of my intention to ramp up the coverage of Artists who are not “big names” yet, but who are doing great and/or important work that I feel deserves to be better known. Shane Rocheleau is one such Photographer.

Researching Mr. Rocheleau, I was struck by his down to earth eloquence in the interviews I came across. Given the abstract nature of the images in his book, and the lack of any words from him in it, beyond some titles, I decided his voice should be the one featured in this piece, feeling that this would be the best way to compliment his exceptional book. For additional background on YAMOTFABAATA and Gnomic Book, which in two short years has gotten off to an auspicious start, I also reached out to Jason Koxvold with some questions, and his answers I weave into the following discussion with Mr. Rocheleau.

The first image in the book reminded me of the planets aligning in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, until I discovered its title. Musket Balls. A fitting opening salvo, given the subject matter. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

Kenn Sava (KS)- Let’s start near the beginning, Shane…When did you first become interested in Photography?

Shane Rocheleau (SR)- First day of classes a couple weeks ago, I asked my students a similar question: “I didn’t discover photography until my freshman year of High School”; “In fifth grade”; “When I was three”. That artists are discovering photography so young is wonderful news for the medium. Photography found me when I was 22.  Two friends of mine and I went cross-country in a 1990-something blue Ford Escort Hatchback. I had no illusions that I’d write the great American road-trip novel, but I figured I’d try anyhow. First night, we camped on the shore of Lake Eerie.  We awoke next morning seeing sparks and feeling the gasoline running through us, intent on getting elsewhere. My buddy handed me his little Kodak Andvantix camera: “Take a pic of me at the water’s edge.” “Yup, got it.” When I released the shutter (and I’m very sorry for the pun, but) something clicked. I really never gave him that camera back. Every town we hit I went straight to the drugstore to find film. Photographically, I’m still on that trip. (Suffice to say, the novel didn’t get written.) 

KS- What, or who, were your influences?

SR- It was somewhere in Wyoming in July, 1999 that I said to myself, “I think I want to be a photographer.” At that moment, I knew of exactly one photographer: Ansel Adams.  Through him, I discovered Edward Weston, Minor White, and Wynn Bullock. The latter two became my heroes. And for several years, I knew very few others, maybe only Richard Avedon. I’ve always tended toward the hermitage, and my hermitage kept me fairly naïve in those pre-Google days.  

In the last decade, though, I’ve been endlessly influenced!  To name a few:  Ron Jude, Heikki Kaski, Dana LIxenberg, Alec Soth, Katrin Koenning, Bill Henson, Brian Ulrich, Cig Harvey, Greg Halpern, Robert Bergman, and on and on.

Narcissus. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA. To read Mr. Rocheleau’s comment on Ovid’s Narcissus, click this footnote1.

KS- I’ve seen some of the images in YAMOTFABAATA previously in A Glorious Victory online- What’s the genesis of YAMOTFABAATA?

SR- My collaborative project (with Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa and Brian Ulrich, primarily), A Glorious Victory, is about Petersburg, Virginia, and one I worked on immediately following Oyster Park, (a series of pictures I made 2011-2013, when I spent days and night hanging out with a local group of homeless men). While it’s impossible to pinpoint the moment YAMOTFABAATA began, it may have been when one morning a prospective portrait subject walked me around to the front of the motel where I’d been spending time. The police, medics, and press had gone, but the murder scene remained, seemingly untouched (“Site of the Death of Edward Jones”).  The rich red vestiges of a man’s life left me drained and scared and liminal.  I didn’t make a picture for another month. My guess is that when I picked the camera up again, it began turning away from Petersburg and toward myself. Slowly out of this inflection point rose YAMOTFABAATA.

George’s Camp in Snow, from Oyster Park. About as clear of a definition of “homeless” as I’ve seen, and one of the most poignant. Photo by Shane Rocheleau.

KS- You’ve taken numerous Photos of homeless people, including those in Oyster Park, which is about them, as you say, and again in YAMOTFABAATA, where they are one element of the larger picture. When did you begin to take Photos of the homeless? Was it hard to gain the confidence of these folks?

SR- I moved to the Southside of Richmond in 2012. After work each day, I would take my exit home and pass a group of men who shared the corner at the bottom of the ramp. I lived just three blocks from where these men spent their days. On closer inspection, I realized there were tents everywhere, hidden if one doesn’t think to look. These men were my neighbors. Over a few months, I just couldn’t shake that “homeless” men may be the most objectified demographic in our country. One day I stopped my car and walked up to Deano, Lee, Juan, Bob, and George. 

Deano and Kitty Kate. One of the Photos that appears in both Oyster Park and YAMOTFABAATA. Photo by Shane Rocheleau.

I told them who I am, that I’m a photographer, and asked could I sit down and talk? And they welcomed me. Some were more wary than others, but each of them, over many months, opened up to me; as did others who later arrived into this little community. I can’t remember the catalyst, but several weeks later, I made my first pictures. I hung out day and night, learned about their lives and they about mine; and, I made pictures. After 18 months, the shape of the area drastically changed, their tents and belongings were discarded by developers, and though I was able to keep in touch with some of the men initially, I haven’t seen any of the men in many years. The men of Oyster Park taught me more about life and humanity than anyone or anything before or since. I’m so grateful for my time with them.

KS- YAMOTFABAATA‘s Photographs seem to be taken in various places. How long did the project take to shoot, and then to put into its final form?

SR- The pictures in YAMOT were made mostly in Virginia. There are several from Tennessee, as well, and one each from California and Alabama.

Behind the scenes. Even a torn achilles injury, devastating for us mere mortals, didn’t keep Mr. Rocheleau from creating Photos for YAMOT. Here he (at least his booted foot) is seen using his Toyo 45cf 4×5 field camera at the scene of what is now the Photo ——– (redacted. My read is Fallen Tree) in the book. Photo from Shane Rocheleau’s Instagram feed, June 24, 2016.

I made pictures exclusively for this project for about two years, but its first pictures were made several years earlier. The final form of the book took shape over a year and a half, and then, near the end of that process, I made several new pictures in a flurry of excitement and desperation. Though the book had been essentially finished, I now can’t imagine it without at least two of those new pictures: God and War (Inheritance), and, Untitled, which is a picture of my daughter. They feel necessary.  

KS- Among those places, you’ve Photographed Virginia for a number of years, where you live and teach (I believe), what is it that particularly appeals to you about it as a subject?

SR- I live and teach in Richmond, VA. The narrative of American History criss-crosses Virginia through parts of five or six centuries. It feels like it’s all here: our earliest settlers and their struggles, John Smith, early treaties with and betrayals of Native Americans, the birth of our governing philosophies, Slavery, the Civil War and Confederacy’s Capital, John Wilkes Booth, Jim Crow, Free Black settlements, World War II and the military, the rise and fall of manufacturing, Civil Rights, 9/11, and so on.  

But, truly, I photograph here because I live here. I’m just lucky that Virginia is so narratively and historically rich.

Photographer & Publisher Jason Koxvold, facing with his arm on the table, and Photographer Shane Rocheleau, right, discuss the finer points of their terrific new books at the Gnomic Book table at the LES Fotobookfair, July 21st, 2018, the day I discovered YAMOTFABAATA.

KS- How did you come to meet and work with Jason Koxvold and Gnomic Book?

SR- Our mutual friend, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, used to host photographer gatherings at Jason’s Brooklyn studio. On occasion, I’d drive up from Richmond to partake. Stanley and I would arrive early, and Jason and I invariably hung-out before the raucous arrived. We became easy friends. The very last one of these gatherings, Stanley snuck my book dummy. Jason was the first to look at it that night. Soon after, he started Gnomic. I received an email one morning about a year later; he asked if I might consider that YAMOT be its second project.

Spend any time around these two Artists and it’s immediately apparent what good friends they are. There’s an important lesson here that obviously translates directly to the quality of their end product.

I was close to publishing elsewhere, so I felt immediately reticent. Jason is driven and smart and talented. And he’s my friend. I wanted to work with a friend, with someone I knew I could trust. In the end, it felt obvious and simple.  

KS- The book is an exceptionally beautiful object. You’ve spoken about the trip to Germany to print it, could you talk a bit about the planning that went into it? What role did Jason & Gnomic play in its realization?

SR- Jason and I Skyped or met almost weekly between December, 2017 and early March, 2018, when we departed for Germany. Each time we had a general agenda and discussed those items: design, sequence, materials such as paper type and fabrics, distribution, the Kickstarter campaign, where to print, whether to take a boat or a plane to Europe, font, the sources of my anxieties as best as we could identify, size of letters or pictures or drawings or run, whether this thing or that thing should be centered or just look centered, and so on. We beat to pulp any detail bigger than a quark. 

Though we each gave the other lots of feedback: ultimately, our roles were fairly distinct. I sequenced the pictures, chose the text, and prepared the files for printing.  Jason designed everything. He chose the font and the fabric, designed the layout, created and kicked-off the Kickstarter, and planned our European caper. I’m so thankful to have found such an energetic, talented, and supportive partner in the realization of YAMOTFABAATA.

At this point, I’m bringing Gnomic Book founder/publisher Jason Koxvold in.

The multi-talented Jason Koxvold, who’s Gnomic Book is quickly becoming one of the most important newer PhotoBook publishers in the world. Here, he gives me a peak at a secret- Shane has made a few signed prints from YAMOTFABAATA in two sizes that are indeed for sale! Two portraits, in the smaller size, may be seen behind him on the right in this Photo are 100.00 each. The beautiful, larger size, that Jason is showing me are 200.00 per. You heard it here, first.

KS- Jason, how did YAMOTFABAATA come about from your end?

Jason Koxvold (JK)- In 2016 I was fortunate enough to see a maquette that Shane had made of his book, and it immediately resonated with me. As we became closer friends, we started to talk about publishing the book. Shane is one of the most intelligent people I know, deeply intuitive and yet rigorously thoughtful, so the process of editing the book and rationalizing design decisions was a pleasure.

KS- At the LES Fotobookfair, I was enthralled listening to stories told by publishers and artists about the finer points of bookmaking. Given this is your first book, and since so many Photographers are interested in making PhotoBooks, how did you learn so much about what to look for that you used in making YAMOTFABAATA such an exceptionally beautifully produced book your first time out?

Shane Rocheleau- Firstly, I have many wonderful, giving, and engaged friends; many looked very closely at the many manifestations of this project. Their feedback was invaluable and inspiring. Without those whom I thank at the end of the book, there is no book.

I look at Photobooks weekly. Even if unconsciously, I’ve learned a rich Photobook language through this practice. I’ve thought enough about my new lexicon that some of my decisions felt rather natural and intuitive, like speaking. But honestly, that production value is on Gnomic. Jason is uncompromising on quality. I think it’s beautifully done, too; I didn’t imagine it would be this beautiful.    

KS- What was the most difficult part?

SR- Printing day front flanked me; I marched with the work toward it. I’d never needed to commit so fully to artistic action. Nothing was more difficult than finally yelling charge and letting the work go, committed and flawed and unfinished, off to the printer, off my desktop, dispossessed. I felt beleaguered, like a lonely, impotent General slumped in a three-legged chair. (Except no violence or gore or threats to life and such.  How privileged am I that that’s one of the more difficult things I’ve done in years?)

Excerpt of the Title List

KS- The Title List is sure to fascinate readers. 20 out of the 50 images have their titles fully crossed out, another 10 are partially crossed out. If a reader is really determined, they could most likely still make out many of the crossed out titles. Without giving away the mystery, could you speak about why you decided to do it this way, and why you decided to use the black marker instead of naming them “Untitled?”

SR- I don’t mind “Untitled” as a title. I do mind 40% of pictures titled this way. I don’t like that sort of redundancy. But I also don’t like when titles give too much away. With that said, some titles – and the information carried therein – were absolutely necessary for the book’s narrative (think Patrick Henry’s words, or that the building near the end is a Federal Reserve Building). My quandary then:  how do I balance that I want to withhold information and avoid repetitively titling pictures “Untitled” and provide the information I deem integral to understanding this book?

I’ve used redaction in past projects, so I already had the language at my disposal. Given that redaction is an indispensable element of propaganda and indoctrination, the solution seemed almost obvious once it suggested itself to me. Plus, it’s interesting to look at. The unintended benefit of this solution is that the title page is part of the art rather than a perfunctory addendum.

KS- Another element is the fairly frequent use of blank pages. I counted over 50 including 5 sets of double blank (facing) pages. In many cases, they serve to set off an image on the opposite side, which is common in PhotoBooks, though their appearance, particularly in the use of facing blank pages, feels unpredictable. Are they purely there as a means of pacing the images, or…?

SR- In music, there are breaks.  Those breaks signal a shift and are necessary for establishing rhythm. I love thinking of Photobooks as musical. I tried to sequence and break YAMOT musically, if you will. But with that said, I know no more about music than what I’ve gleaned while listening. My best instrument is my voice, and it’s not good.

Also, while a book requires that individual pictures be sounds in a larger symphony, I also wish for each picture to be a self-contained piece. As you note, much of the book has one picture per spread, alone in space; of course, each still generally follows and is followed by another. This solves my need to eat my cake and have it, too.

KS- There’s so much that YAMOTFABAATA has in common with Knives, your publisher, Jason’s, terrific new book. Both deal with the failure of promises and institutions, the realities brought on by a changing world bringing shrinking opportunity in the USA for many, and the state of the country the white majority has created  Your’s is more abstract, while Jason’s is more documentary. Jason’s looks at life in the Hudson Valley, after the loss of its 150 year old cutlery industry, and your’s looks at a wider realm. Still, they’re two sides of the same coin in so many ways. Is that coincidental?

SR- On the one hand, it’s absolutely coincidental. Jason and I each began our respective projects independent of the other. On the other hand, Jason and I are friends.  We have conversations, many of the same concerns, and, as fairly well-off white dudes, similar experiences in the world. He thinks deeply about his position, and I try to, as well. It is not a coincidence that as persons participating in the same on-going conversation – on whiteness and race, poverty and opportunity, privilege and responsibility – we would independently make work addressing those very things. Indeed, many of my photographer friends are making work that at least obliquely confronts these same cultural difficulties, ills, and realities. 

Knives by Jason Koxvold.

KS- I then asked Jason if he hesitated to publish YAMOTFABAATA because of its similarities to Knives, or if he saw it as “complimentary.”

Jason Koxvold- Shane and I were both coming at the same themes from very different angles; in that regard the two can be seen as complementary to some extent. I like that in viewing both, readers might build some kind of mental Venn diagram in terms of where our ideas overlap and where they don’t.

KS- On the Gnomic site, it says that the focus is on exploring the notion of the book as object, which is easy to see with Knives, its sister book, You were right all along, (or YWRAA) and YAMOTFABAATA. As far as YAMOTFABAATA goes, what were the particular challenges in making such a beautiful book?

JK- Each book we produce is an attempt to make something greater than the sum of its parts. With YAMOTFABAATA we wanted to echo the quality of religious texts in the form of our book, using an iridescent purple cloth, gilded edges on the book block. Each of these decisions incurs some level of cost and technical challenge; our printer had to outsource the gilding to a company that specializes in bibles. Fortunately, working with experienced craftsmen in ‘Old Europe’ gave me a great deal of confidence in the process.

KS- Given your diverse and successful background, why did you decide to start Gnomic Book?

JK- I wanted to leverage and combine skills which I had acquired over the course of my career to make objects that have some kind of permanence, collaborating with different artists to do so. It’s truly a mutually beneficial process.

Harrison, or White Whales. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- Before I actually saw it, I heard the book is ostensibly about white masculinity. That turns out to be true, as it shows what those in power and their institutions have made of the world. However, none of the white men depicted seem to be enjoying themselves or their “status” in the world. Then, there are other themes that run through the book- religion, decay, death, national institutions, and hovering over all of it, the power of nature to superimpose its supreme will on man at any given point. That’s a lot to take on in one book. Did it feel that way when you were making it?

Shane Rocheleau- There is a contradiction driving white male rage in this country: at the top, white men still reign. Women and minorities represent less than 20% of congress, for instance. But uniformity at the top is belied by a slow progression toward equality in the body politic.  White men in this country are raised by parents and the American Dream alike to believe power and supremacy are their personal destinies. Except it’s not, not for most white men. Many white men, like so many other demographics, are struggling.  (And for those who aren’t struggling so much? Loss is loss, even to one who still has more than everyone else.) Increasingly, white men must settle for less than supremacy. While you and I know this to be right and necessary, I imagine many white men have not resigned to relinquishing any of the historical spoils of being born white and male, especially when in both cultural messaging and the demographics of power, the opposite is suggested. It’s important to me that I seek to empathize. The men in my book, largely, represent this contradiction. I wish I knew how to demonstrate that equality is not a zero-sum game. The lesser the inequality, the happier and more decent everyone becomes, bottom to top.  

To your question about taking on so much in this book: I’m always some version of overwhelmed and confused, so inasmuch as I always feel a bit like I’m taking on too much, it absolutely felt that way when I was making this work. With that said, I wanted to address each of those themes you highlight. It was a fun problem to solve: how do I weave so much into so little? My answer is my book. 

Jaime. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- The 4 women in YAMOTFABAATA each seem lost in thought. In Jason’s “Knives,” one of the final Photos is of a mother who stares out at the camera while holding a young child. In your book, your daughter is seen in the final image. In it, we see her through what appears to be a rain streaked window, where we can barely make out that it’s a young woman, but, as in many of the other portraits in the book- of male and females, we can’t see her eyes. I see dread and melancholy in this image. How is the young woman going to deal with all of this metaphorical “rain” in the world? The window is made of glass, and so provides limited protection from the world while allowing a chance to see it outside. Perhaps, she’s sleeping through the storm. Perhaps she’s lost in a dream, or lost in thought, or worry about it.

SR- I appreciate that reading. And to continue it, maybe, after the storm’s climax: the rain should let up, as rain does. The young woman steps outside. The gentle day drips and refracts little miracles, smelling of nectar and the dusty after-rain. And then the flowers grow, the bugs buzz songs under a symphony of chirping, and the world in her eyes can be new and open. For my daughter, and everyone else, I hope this is the case and that after the storm it’s better than before:  kinder, calmer, with less disparity and more community. As I write this, though, I’m scared I hope for too much, and I don’t know if I’ll be there for it anyway, if it does ever manifest. Maybe it will, and maybe that’ll be my daughter’s book.

My Dad, Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA

KS- Elsewhere, your father is included, and there’s a “Self-portrait,” interestingly showing only your right arm and hand, which you probably use to take your Photos with. These, and the Photo of your daughter add to the autobiographical nature of the book. How did they feel about being included?

SR- My daughter refuses to be photographed. I got lucky with this picture: I was making a picture of my girlfriend’s mother, Holly, seated right there where my daughter is seated.  My daughter wanted to help. Because I needed to direct Holly and she is seated inside a closed car, I called her cell phone. She placed it on speaker then on the passenger seat. I gave my daughter instructions for Holly, and she relayed those instructions through my cell phone. After we were finished, I think my daughter was taken enough by the whole experience (and hopefully by all the wonderful seeing!) that, for the first time ever, she asked if I could photograph her. Absolutely!  

But while myriad subsequent gestures suggest she’s really happy to be a part of the book, she hasn’t explicitly said so (she’s not just in a picture and the subject of the dedication:  she also hand-wrote the title for the title page and drew a little drawing that’s hiding toward the end). As for my dad: same. I think he’s happy to be part of it, but he’s thus far kept it to himself. Everyone has those things they haven’t the tools to express.

Site of the Death of Edward Jones. Unforgettable. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA. It also appears in his series, A Glorious Victory.

KS- I will preface it by saying I’ve learned the hard way not to ask about specific works less the answer takes away some of its mystery. I’m hoping that won’t be the case if I ask you about Edward Jones, as in “”Site of the Death of.” I haven’t been able to find out who this might be.

SR- Edward Jones is the man who bled out above that spot. He was shot in the head in a drug deal or burglary gone wrong. I arrived at the motel where he was staying to make pictures of another resident, unaware what had transpired just hours earlier. Though the police had left, the blood that had dripped from the second floor onto the parking lot below remained. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen and felt. And that’s the short story. As for where? Petersburg, VA. I felt like I needed to name him. It felt like the right thing to do, rather than entitle the picture “Site of Anonymous Man’s Death” or something of the sort.

KS- In the midst of so much darkness we move through in YAMOTFABAATA, and the white-male led world today …so many failed promises, including “the American dream,” so many broken institutions, including religious ones, there’s also the ever-present possibly of disaster…man-made or natural, all of which is poetically rendered in your book. The images speak to a world that’s cracking, not seemingly working for anyone depicted, particularly the deceased Edward Jones. YAMOTFABAATA leaves me feeling that it’s hard to have hope in 2018. You appear in the book as an older version of your father’s child, with your own child appearing at the end. And so, you’re in the middle. As much as the book looks forward to your daughter’s generation, it’s also a looking back on your father’s and our generations. It’s obvious that things didn’t get this way in one day, and the weight of history is, at this point, daunting. Given all of this, why did you decide to dedicate it to your daughter?

SR- In the ways I know how, I am working to make my world a better place than it was before me. I think both my parents really did try to do the same thing. They raised me well, lovingly, to be a kinder, more open human being than was recommended to them.  I’m empowered by this demonstration in my life of how to actively make things better than they were. I want my daughter to be empowered by the same demonstration. I hope I raise her to be a decent and active participant in whatever community she finds herself. Like her picture, the dedication is an act of faith in the face today’s discord; I can’t tell the future, so I won’t suggest to her that discord is inevitable. She has power.  I hope she uses it for good, and better than I’ve used mine.

——- Cellar Door The first three words are redacted, hidden under a black marker strike through. My reading is From Under The Cellar Door. Photo by Shane Rocheleau from YAMOTFABAATA.

KS- Since NHNYC was originally primarily a Painting site, until it was hijacked in the dead of night by Photography in late 2016, I have to ask you what, if any, role Painting has played in your Artistic life and development.? (If any, which Artists or works?)

SR- I grew up loving Picasso. I think he taught me that strange can be good and about balance inside a frame.  When I studied a bit of art in college, I found myself compelled by the Hudson River painters, Caravaggio, J.M.W. Turner, and Rembrandt Peale, amongst others. More recently, I’ve loved Lucien Freud and John Currin. I’m guessing you can tell by this list, though, that I’m not exactly keeping up with the trajectory of painting. I can say this, though: I work my photographic files very much like I imagine a painter might. I add and subtract color and tone in strokes, attempting to create a canvas that can instruct and contain the viewer’s eye. I fear, though, that even in saying that, I sound a bit naïve!

KS- You thank Gregory Halpern. Being very taken with his work, myself, as I’ve written many times, what was his involvement in this…if he was?

SR- I don’t know Greg that well, but I respect him immensely. He’s as good a person as he is an artist. Greg was not involved, per se. But at that same photographer gathering I spoke about earlier, he was the last person that night who looked at my book dummy.  The next day, he, Stanley, and I were walking in Manhattan and Greg pulled me aside. He apologized for not commenting on the dummy the night before. Still reeling that anyone saw it – nevermind one of my heroes – I froze. He told me he loved it and asked if he could recommend it for a fairly major prize. That moment drew me as close to vertigo as I’ve probably ever found myself. He told me that my “pictures are meant to be seen”. Because of Greg’s gesture to me that day, I have a blessing to allow for just that.

KS- You’ve spoken about thinking of music while you were editing and sequencing YAMOTFABAATA. Do you listen to music while you Photograph?

SR- I don’t. I photograph with only the sounds of my environment, and when I’m under the dark cloth, I don’t even hear them. But when I’m editing? I blast music! You’re likely to hear Radiohead, Tom Waits, Mazzy Star, Pearl Jam, Tragically Hip, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, and 80s hits, amongst others!

KS- The book has gotten quite a bit of critical notice already. Does that surprise you?

SR- Yes, I’m totally surprised. I believe the work I’m making is relevant and worth seeing, but I also understand that there are significant challenges getting work in front of an audience beyond my small community of friends and artists. I’m so happy YAMOTFABAATA is getting noticed.  I never expect exposure. This is a wonderful surprise.  

KS- Finally, with your busy life, have you had any time to think about your next project?

SR- I’m deep into my next project. Though it’s still shape-shifting too fast to capture, I’m really excited about it.  It’s about the smallness of a human being, paranoia and his ascetic’s loneliness, oblivion and artifacts, spiders and webs and life-cycles…if any of that makes any sense at all. I guess we already covered that I’m generally overwhelmed and confused; I’m also generally excited by my work, in spite of all the persistent liminal turmoil!

BookMarks–

Good friends make very good books…and a bag.

YAMOTFABAATA, which contains 56 color plates, is currently available in a first edition/first printing of 500 gorgeous copies, which are not going to last long. It may be purchased here, or here.

Jason Koxvold’s Knives (and its tote bag), may be ordered here, or here, 

Aint-Bad Curator’s Choice, Issue No. 12, may still be available here. If it says “sold out,” email them directly and ask. They told me recently there are a few copies left. It contains 15 curators each getting a section, who choose 31 Photographers between them, representing what they feel are “the best of contemporary Photography.”

*-Soundtrack for this Post is Karma Police, by Radiohead from 1997’s O.K. Computer. Lyrics are here, video, right here-

My thanks to Shane Rocheleau, Jason Koxvold and Kris Graves.

My previous Posts on Photography are here. 

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  1. Shane Rocheleau- “I’ve been meditating on empathy for over a decade, now, on its receipt and provision and on its absence. But when I read Ovid’s Metamorphoses, empathy became immediately central to my practice. Upon a closer reading of the Narcissus myth, I realized it isn’t about Narcissism at all; rather, it’s about the power and necessity of empathy. Narcissus is not a Donald Trump; he is a beautiful boy living in a Greek culture wherein beautiful boys are lusted after and objectified (this culture does the same to young, magazine-thin women, for instance). When Narcissus kneels to the pond, he sees his reflection and remarks:
    I reach, your arms almost embrace me, and as
    I smile, you smile again at me; weeping
    I’ve seen great tears flow down your face (…)
    Narcissus had only ever seen lust and admiration in the eyes of others; never had he seen his complex, human emotions returned to him. That new experience felt so necessary that he stays with its giver, forsakes sustenance, and ultimately dies.The combination of my giving this ancient character overdue empathy and coming to understand that empathy is this powerful and necessary was a profound and important personal experience. I am a better artist and person because of it.” ↩