Robert Voit, New Trees @Amador

JTF (just the facts): A total of 17 color images, framed in blond natural wood with no mat, and hung against cream and grey walls in the main gallery spaces. The c-prints are available in two sizes: 60×50, in editions of 6, and 24×20, in editions of 4. There are 5 large prints and 12 small prints in the exhibit. The images were taken in various locations around the world between 2004 and 2009. A monograph of this body of work is being published by Steidl (here). (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: The mobile phone tower is an excellent example of one of the necessary evils of modern life. While most people demand better coverage for their phones, town zoning boards and local residents aggressively fight the telecommunications companies to prevent the construction of massive eyesores that are visible from miles around. Both sides would like to somehow make these towers “invisible”, and the current solution favored by many is to dress the towers up to look like trees, so they blend in better with the surrounding environment. Or at least that’s the intention.

German photographer Robert Voit has spent the past several years scouring the globe, making pictures of these cell tower trees. Voit trained in Düsseldorf under Thomas Ruff, and so has absorbed many of the conceptual lessons passed down from the Bechers. Each image is rigorously composed, with the tower centered in the frame, using consistent portions of land and sky and generally similar scale. Given the diversity of examples in the series, the various towers can be hung together in pairs and typologies to get at the underlying themes and variations in the artificial decorations.

The towers themselves are disguised as a dizzying array of species: there are palms and cypress, cacti and multiple types of evergreens, some with perfectly symmetrical branches, others with quirks and random limbs to make them look less fake. While a few do a satisfying job of blending into the environment, most have been transformed into caricatures of the natural world, odd sculptural forms that border on the absurd; it’s quite easy to wander around this show giggling at the insanity of it all.

Stylistically, while the debt to the Bechers is obvious, Voit has clearly taken some of the foundation concepts and adapted them to his own artistic approach. In contrast to the meticulously uniform backgrounds employed by his predecessors, Voit allows a wide spectrum of colors to float behind his subjects, from washed out whites to deep blues with puffy clouds (there’s even a painterly pink and orange sunset). He’s also allowed more locally specific context into the frame, showing the base station buildings and more of the surrounding natural environment; several of the images juxtapose the fake cell tower tree with a real tree or two standing nearby. Finally, while the works are conceptual, there is an element of subtle humor and satire in these pictures that dissolves away the cool detachment that is the hallmark of many of his mentors and classmates.
Overall, this project contains a convincing mix of conceptual inversion and clever ridiculousness. As such, it has an element of fun that will broaden its appeal far beyond the usual crowd of ardent Becher adherents.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows: the 60×50 prints are $9000 each, while the 24×20 prints are $2750 or $4000 (including the frame). Voit’s work has no secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
While I did like the large scale images quite well as individual pieces, I think these images will be most successful when hung together in groups. For those museums and collectors who are amassing a representative sample of the Düsseldorf school (or are planning the comprehensive retrospective for a decade from now), it seems obvious that a grid of 4, 6 or 8 of these small prints would be an important acquisition, especially since they represent the next generation of idea refinement (from the Bechers to Ruff to Voit).

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Feature: Daily Beast (here)
Robert Voit, New Trees
Through March 6th
Amador Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Ferit Kuyas, Industrial Interiors

JTF (just the facts): Published in 1999 by Edition Stemmle. 120 pages, with 90 black and white images, sequenced in various sizes. All of the images were taken between 1989 and 1995. Includes a foreword by Hans-Peter Bärtschi, an essay by Benedikt Loderer, and an epilogue by the artist. Detailed location information is given for each plate. (Cover shot at right, via Photo-Eye.)

Comments/Context: For those of you that follow our photography conversation on a daily basis, it is likely obvious that we have recently been thinking quite a bit about the idea of multiple interpretations of the same image, digging deeper into how knowledge influences the emotions we ascribe to images. Perhaps this intellectual exercise has become a mini obsession, but I think the pictures in this book are yet another example of how the impact of a certain subject is significantly influenced by our understanding of its context.

If we look back at the history of industrial photography, I think the 1920’s and 1930’s can safely be called the golden age of this genre (no disrespect to the Bechers). Whether your particular favorites are Charles Sheeler, Margaret Bourke-White, Albert Renger–Patzsch or others, the collective mood of the industrial images of this period was one of power and confidence, a Modernist celebration of the heroism and romance of machinery. The optimism of this age infused the pictures with a patina of awe-inspiring excitement that remains vibrant almost a century later.

Ferit Kuyas‘ images of industrial interiors cover the exact same territory as his more famous predecessors: gargantuan machinery of all kinds (hydroelectric power plants, spinning mills, refuse incineration plants, metal working factories and breweries). There are turbines and engines, massive pipes and boilers, shop floors and gleaming duct work, all captured in pristine cleanliness and pure natural light. The difference here is that while the surfaces and textures of this equipment may still shine and glow, the fact is that these facilities have been mothballed, empty and abandoned for many years, entirely defunct in terms of any importance to society at large. We now live in the information age, and the industrial might of yesterday is now a forgotten relic.

These are extremely well crafted pictures, with careful compositions that highlight the many patterns and geometries found in this kind of machinery; there is a tactile richness to the tonal gradations that makes even the most mundane of equipment seem lusciously polished. And yet, even with all of this pictorial beauty, these images in the end represent faded glory, a sad and melancholy reminder of what was, not a majestic view of our future success. Their emptiness ultimately represents failure, not triumph. If we were to hang Margaret Bourke-White’s image of the turbines of the Niagara Falls Power Company (here) right next to Kuyas‘ image of the generator hall of the Eglisau power plant, even though they were taken more than 60 years apart, they would have a remarkable, echoing similarity. And yet we see one as energetic and romantic, the other silent and crestfallen – a fascinating transformation over time.

Overall, I found this to be a thoughtfully executed set of modern industrial “portraits”, with strong connections to some of the masterworks of the medium, well worth close consideration given our specific collecting approach.

Collector’s POV: Ferit Kuyas is represented by Bau-Xi Photo in Toronto (here) and LUX Photo Gallery in Amsterdam (here). His work has not yet found its way to the secondary markets, so gallery retail is really the only option for interested collectors at this point. Collectors of industrial photography will find much to admire in Kuyas‘ work; any number of images from this monograph would fit nicely into our own collection.

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Hasselblad Masters, 2002 (here)
  • Features: The Independent (here), Lenscratch (here)

Denis Darzacq, HYPER @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 15 color images, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the entry/reception and main gallery spaces. All of the c-prints are 38×52 or reverse, made in editions of 8, and taken in 2007/2008. A monograph of this work has been published by Filigranes Editions (here). A supporting exhibition entitled “Body Language” hangs salon style on one wall in the entry. It contains a grouping of 16 vintage works depicting bodies in motion taken by a wide variety of photographers. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: A trip down the aisles of a large supermarket or big box store can often feel like an assault on the senses: walls of bright colors and eye catching graphics jostle for attention, offering a dizzying array of life changing features and suspect benefits. The choices attack from all sides, pummeling consumers with a nearly infinite number of ways to buy.
French photographer Denis Darzacq has extended this simple metaphor to its logical conclusion by making startling images of young people drifting through the air amidst the consumer excess of French hypermarkets. Dancers dressed in everyday clothes alternately hang listless in the refrigerated section, dive face first near the shampoo, and lunge near the toilet paper. Every picture features a different flavor of mid-air balletic grace: falling, flying, floating, twirling and soaring, with some of the moves looking more like the unexpected reaction to an explosion or a fight, with bodies blown back, hanging face down like corpses or twisted like rag dolls. Since these works are not digital Photoshop constructions but actual stop-motion photographs, some of these moments of quiet, angelic hovering likely ended in punishing falls. The message is elegantly and exuberantly clear: there’s an invisible battle going on in aisle three, and relentless consumerism is delivering a potent barrage of body blows. While we’ve seen this theme explored in plenty of contemporary photography, these works have a freshness and vitality that separates them from the depressing and hectoring hordes.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced in an escalating edition, starting at $7500, moving to $11500, and finishing at $15000, depending on the location in the edition. Darzacq’s work has very little secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point. The various vintage prints hung in support of the main exhibit are priced between $2000 and $38000.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Agence VU page (here)
  • Features/Reviews: Lens culture (here), The Daily Beast (here), Photograph (here), The Independent (here)
Through March 27th
20 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Hairdos and Parties: African Typologies by J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere and Malick Sidibé @Stephenson

JTF (just the facts): This is a two-person exhibit, with two relatively separate sections. The Ojeikere works are framed in black and matted and hung in the main gallery space. There are a total of 11 gelatin silver prints, 7 printed as larger single images (approximately 16×16 square), and 4 printed smaller (approximately 4×4 square) and framed together in a grid. All of the prints are modern prints (from 2007 or 2009) made from negatives taken between 1970 and 1975; the prints are not editioned.

The Sidibé works are framed in black and matted and hung in the back viewing room. There are a total of 4 works, each of which is comprised of between 15 and 22 individual gelatin silver prints (approximately 3×2 each), pasted onto a cardboard poster and annotated by the artist in pen. These vintage works were made between 1966 and 1968. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with Fifty-One Fine Art Photography in Antwerp (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The best of African photography doesn’t find its way to New York as often as it should, so we do our best to get out to see it when it does make a rare appearance. Private dealer Parker Stephenson has smartly paired images by J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere from Nigeria and Malick Sidibé from Mali in this intimate show, highlighting two bodies of work that have parallels with the conceptual typologies that have become commonplace in contemporary photography.

Like the Bechers and their industrial structures, Ojeikere systematically documented Nigerian hairstyles in the 1960s and 1970s, making deadpan portraits of the backs of heads against monochrome backgrounds. In these works, hair has been transformed into a sculptural medium: it is variously woven, braided, pleated, knotted, twisted, and piled into elaborate, ornate creations. The designs run the spectrum from tribal to botanical, complete with abstract patterns and intricate decorations. The project operates both at the anthropological level (a careful document of vanishing cultural traditions) and at a more conceptual one (a process-centric, objective comparison of forms). The similarities to the approach of the Bechers are striking, but the individual images are also strongly reminiscent of the up-close New Objectivity florals of Karl Blossfeldt – astounding designs and geometries found in unlikely places.

While most collectors are already familiar with Malick Sidibé’s funky 1960s studio portraits, complete with their eye-popping stripes and patterns, the posters on view here are a reminder of another facet of his work. As an active working photographer, Sidibé often attended parties and dances at all kinds of social clubs and venues, making casual pictures and simple portraits of the guests. The next day, he would gather the prints together on a poster outside his studio, complete with numbers underneath, so people could come by and order reprints of their favorites. These hand crafted maquettes are arrays of small black and white images, all the same size. Like his more formal studio portraits, the images capture the contagious energy of youth: the mix of traditional and Western dress, the obsession with new music (many people are shown holding up album covers), and the sheer joy of lively dancing and exuberant joking around. While these inadvertent typologies lack a rigorous conceptual construct, the multi-image display approach underscores the nuances of cultural change that were taking place.

All in, this is an intelligent exhibit of under appreciated work, well worth a quick visit. Most importantly, I came away with the unexpected conclusion that a formal array of a dozen 1970s Nigerian hairstyles on a large white wall might compare surprisingly well with gas tanks, coal mine tipples, or framework houses.
Collector’s POV: The larger Ojeikere images are priced at $2500 each, while the smaller prints are $1000 each or $4000 for the grid of four. The Sidibé posters range between $18000 and $22000 each. Ojeikere’s photographs have little or no recent secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for collectors interested in his work at this point. Sidibé’s later print portraits and club scenes can be found at auction from time to time, ranging from $2000 to $5000 in the past few years. These vintage maquettes are however much more rare. Sidibé is officially represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York (here).
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Pigozzi Collection (here)
  • J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs, 2000 (here)
Hairdos and Parties: African Typologies by J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere and Malick Sidibé
Through February 26th
764 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065
by appointment

Ryan McGinley and Aaron Siskind

While I realize many of you read the New York Times as regularly as we do, the Ryan McGinley photo essay in the past weekend’s New York Times Magazine (here) seems worthy of a short discussion. For those of you who haven’t seen the pictures, there are eleven color images of Winter Olympic athletes, outfitted in designer clothing (lots of wispy strips of fabric) and soaring through the air (as required by their various sports) against soft, pastel skies.

For photography collectors, these works will be immediately reminiscent of Aaron Siskind’s Pleasures and Terrors of Levitation from the 1950s. McGinley has however traded Siskind’s pared down, abstracted black and white silhouettes for unabashedly dreamy and romantic views. He has also expanded the scope of the pictures to include more sky, making the often graceful flying look even more precarious and unlikely. While not every picture in this series works for me, if these commissioned images are ever turned into artworks, I hope they are printed at monumental scale to cover a whole wall, the contrast between small figure and huge ground amplifying the peaceful bliss of floating.

Elisa Sighicelli: The Party Is Over @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 color works, unframed, and sparsely hung in a series of six gallery spaces and a hallway on the fifth floor. There are 9 photographic works and two video installations. All of the photographs are partially backlit c-prints on lightboxes. Most of the images are made up of a single 48×48 panel (plugged in to an electrical outlet); two additional works are 5 panels and 2 panels respectively; a third is a smaller 23×23 single panel. All of the photographs are in editions of 3, from 2009. The two color videos are also in editions of 3, from 2006 and 2009. A catalog of the exhibition is available from the gallery for $30. (Installation shots at right, via Gagosian.)

Comments/Context: Elisa Sighicelli’s straightforward nocturnal compositions glow unlike any night scenes you’ve seen before. The effect comes from a clever adaptation of Jeff Wall’s signature lightboxes: mask out large portions of the print from the back, allowing only certain areas to show through, enhancing the contrast. The result is that the dark black areas are extremely opaque, while the brightly lit zones pulsate with vivid luminosity.
Most of the images depict massive, spotlit billboards, anonymous and often seen from behind, the glare of the illumination radiating out into the darkness. Others capture the gold glitter of a brilliant chandelier, the otherworldly glow of a planetarium, or the diffused radiance of a tangle of bamboo scaffolding that covers a building. While the compositions are unassuming, the character and quality of the light is different in each work, shading from smoky warmth to blinding pure white, alternately human and inhuman depending on the circumstances.
I particularly enjoyed one of the videos (The Party Is Over), which depicts a fireworks display running in reverse. The shards and blooms of light retreat upward, imploding, as if they were falling into a black hole. The squelching of the light happens in a regular rhythm, over and over again, twinkles and sparks disappearing into the night; the effect is successfully meditative.
The medium of photography is filled with exercises and experiments with light. These pictures are something tangentially different; they seem to be “about” light, how it conveys information, mood, and emotion, rather than a demonstration of how it is to be controlled for maximum pictorial effect. This is what is memorable here: it’s not the infrastructure of the back of a billboard that matters, but the idea of its light as a beacon of truth, or an ominous consumerist nightmare, or simply an empty but beautiful abstraction, hovering in the darkness.
Collector’s POV: The photographic works in the show are priced as follows. The 48×48 single panel images are $15000. The 5 panel group is $55000, while the 2 panel pair is $25000. The smaller 23×23 single panel is $10000. I didn’t ask the prices for the videos. Sighicelli’s work has started to appear at auction intermittently in the past few years; prices have generally ranged between $9000 and $17000, although the data set is pretty small.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Interview: Brooklyn Rail (here)
Through February 27th
Gagosian Gallery
98o Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075

Garry Winogrand, Women Are Beautiful @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 black and white images, framed in black and matted, and hung in the small project room space near the back of the gallery. The black bordered gelatin silver prints are 11×14 or reverse, and were printed in 1981, in editions of 80. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: One of the things I admire most about the Yancey Richardson Gallery is that the exhibition program consistently pairs vintage and contemporary works (using the main and project spaces) in smart ways; it is one of the few galleries in New York that effectively uses vintage work to provide a deeper and more rounded context for its primary contemporary offerings.
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This small show of a selection of Garry Winogrand’s images from Women Are Beautiful is a terrific example of a clever pairing. Most collectors will be extremely familiar with this body of Winogrand’s work, but the pictures take on a markedly different feel when juxtaposed with Alex Prager’s staged portraits (review here). Winogrand’s casual images of attractive 1970s women on street corners, at parties, at the beach or in the park were heavily criticized when they were first published; many found them too voyeuristic or exploitative, the “male gaze” gone overboard. When placed next to Prager’s new works, two surprisingly divergent views of women emerge: Prager’s retro world feels hemmed in, the women trapped and closed off, left listless and bored by their roles; Winogrand’s women have a lively sense of confident freedom, open and loose, unperturbed by the man with the camera.
Overall, when hung in contrast, the Winogrand images do an excellent job of highlighting the crux of Prager’s work; the overtly staged “women as actresses” concept is strongly enhanced by a look to these well known pictures from the past. While this show doesn’t merit a detour on its own, it certainly creates a thoughful dialogue with the works in the adjacent gallery.
Collector’s POV: The prints in this small show are priced at $3600 each, including the frame. Prints from this series are routinely available in the secondary markets, ranging in price from $1000 to $6000. The entire portfolio includes 85 prints.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Current Exhibition: Tampa Museum of Art, 2010 (here)
  • Feature: American Suburb X (here)
Garry Winogrand, Women Are Beautiful
Through February 20th
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Alex Prager, Week-End @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 8 color images, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space. The chromogenic prints range in size from 36×47 to 48×62, and are all made in editions of 5. The works are all titled using the names of women, and were all made in 2009. (Installation shots at right.) A companion exhibit of the same body of work is also on view at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles (here).

Comments/Context: As we are photography collectors, we are constantly trying to put contemporary work in some kind of historical context, looking for connections to figures and influences from the past that will inform our understanding of what we’re seeing now. As a result, I found it nearly impossible to see Alex Prager’s new body of work without being immediately drawn back to Cindy Sherman’s untitled film stills from the late 1970s; the similarities and echoes are pretty striking.

Prager’s staged portraits of California women are full of saturated colors and an exaggerated retro melodrama. Her models have been styled with dated wigs, bright red lipstick, and obvious fake eyelashes, covered in thick make-up and dressed in vintage polyester. They stare vacantly beyond the picture plane, resigned to the film noir tragedy that is about to occur, or tightly wound but trying to stay calm, struggling to protect their vulnerabilities; the cinematic role playing runs the gamut from coolly passive to wearyingly indifferent.
Hypothetically placed side by side with Sherman’s work, Prager’s images have a more amplified and ambiguous tension. Sherman’s stills were more conceptual and consciously neutral, with more distinct settings and narrative environments; in Prager’s world, the staging is more spare and the situations are more intensely unclear – often all we’re given is a head against a monochrome sky. While both bodies of work address the roles of women, the construction of personal identities, and even the creation of the idealized woman by the media, Sherman’s fictions seem altogether more plausibly real, while Prager’s have been extravagantly inflated to the point where nuances of gesture and facial expression are the only hooks we have to the unknown and mysterious story.
While scholars might argue whether Prager’s work is overtly derivative, the reality is that Sherman’s film stills are generally beloved and admired, and Prager’s pictures tap into many of the same themes, issues and emotions, but in a colorful, contemporary manner; it is no wonder there is a noticeable buzz in the air.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced between $3900 and $13700, with a variety of intermediate levels along the way ($4900, $5900, $7300, and $9500). Prager’s work entered the secondary markets for the first time in 2009, but there were so few lots on offer/sold that it is hard to draw much of a pricing pattern. While large color portraits don’t fit into our collecting genres, my favorite image in this show was Eva, who stands with her face raised up but her eyes closed, set against a backdrop of dark blinds.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Reviews: The Daily Beast (here), Wallpaper (here)
  • Interview: Art in America (here)

Alex Prager, Week-End
Through February 20th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Lee Friedlander: Still Life 2 @Janet Borden

JTF (just the facts): A total of 44 black and white images, framed in black/dark grey and matted, and hung in the main gallery space. For the most part, the specs on the prints are exactly the same as the previous show, but we have repeated the details here for the sake of completeness. All of the prints are gelatin silver prints, either 11×14 or 16×20 (or reverse); there are 4 in the smaller size and 40 in the larger size on display. All of the works were taken between 1999 and 2009, most in the past few years, and the prints were generally made in the same year as the negative was taken; Friedlander does not edition his prints, so there are no edition sizes/numbers for these works. For the most part, the images were taken either in New City or in New York city, with a variety of other locations in and around the United States represented as well. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It is my guess that there are very few (if any) artists in recent years who have created so much new work that they have merited taking back to back exhibition slots at a prominent New York gallery, but the prolific Lee Friedlander has done it with this unusual double play. The first part of this show last December was one of our top photography shows of 2009 (here), so I have been avidly looking forward to seeing part two to see what other tricks Friedlander has up his sleeve.
In contrast to the amplified effects of the previous show, this exhibit has a much more subdued and subtle feeling. While there is another selection of shop window reflections on display, these works are less slashingly chaotic and confrontational; for the most part, the scantily clad mannequins have been exchanged for oriental carpets, spools of thread and fabric bolts, New York city tourist trinkets, and elaborate cakes. The signature flattened picture plane and overlapping reflections are ever present, but the overall effect is somehow less jarring. Perhaps there is a little Friedlander fatigue going on; if these same images had been shown six months from now, perhaps I would have seen them with fresher eyes.
A second set of works center on Friedlander’s own bookshelves and the tabletop displays of family photographs and personal memorabilia in his home. Elementary school pictures of children and grandchildren are clustered amidst the books, overlapping and mixed together with a Polaroid of Friedlander with Bill Clinton, a post card of Tina Turner, a sheet of postage stamps of Ella Fitzgerald, and the words “best grandpa”. There is also a layer of intellectual voyeurism here, achieved by considering which great novels have been selected and saved by the photographer over the years. This is a much quieter and more personal view of the artist than we have seen before, and one that is clearly steeped in the passing of time. But these images are less recognizable as signature Friedlander, as the jolting compression and abstraction of the picture plane is meaningfully less pronounced.
A third group of pictures uses flowers and plants as its main subject matter. Several of these works take a straight top down view of the flowers in vases, using the shadows of the window frames and nearby Adirondack chairs to create additional patterns and intersecting lines. While the rest of the vegetation images are a jumble of intertwined plant types, these unexpected bird’s eye floral views are something we haven’t seen before; they’re an unusual motif we’d like to see Friedlander explore more deeply and exaggerate even further.
My favorite picture in this show doesn’t fit into any of these neat groups. It mixes fishing tackle (lures, weights, and gloves thrown onto a piece of plywood) with a shadow self-portrait. The plywood table bisects the picture plane, creating two layers of different depth; it’s a classic Friedlander visual puzzle to be carefully unpacked.

Overall, while there are a handful of excellent pictures in this second collection, this work is less consistent than the images in the previous show. Perhaps it merely comes back to a question of editing; even when you are as talented and prolific as Friedlander is, maybe there just aren’t enough astounding new pictures to fill two big gallery shows.
Collector’s POV: Once again, the prints in this show are priced at $5200 or $7400 based on size. The market for Friedlander’s work has not changed in the past month, so see our previous post for details about secondary market pricing and recent auction history.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Reviews of part one: NY Times (here), DLK COLLECTION (here)
Lee Friedlander: Still Life 2
Through February 27th
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

The Düsseldorf School of Photography, Stefan Gronert (ed.)

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2010 by Aperture (here). 320 pages, with 162 color and black and white images by 11 different photographers. Includes a foreword by Lothar Schirmer, an essay by Stefan Gronert, and summary biographies, exhibition lists and bibliographies for each of the artists. The German version of the book is being published by Schirmer/Mosel (here). (Cover shot at right, via Amazon.)

The photographers included/discussed are:

Bernd & Hilla Becher
Laurenz Berges
Elger Esser
Andreas Gursky
Candida Höfer
Axel Hütte
Simone Nieweg
Thomas Ruff
Jörg Sasse
Thomas Struth
Petra Wunderlich

Comments/Context: The Düsseldorf school of photography is probably the largest topic in contemporary photography that has yet to receive the kind of in-depth scholarly treatment we would expect for such an important and influential artistic movement. While I’m sure there have been quite a few masters and Ph.D. theses that have been written about the Bechers and their students, until the publication of this book, there have been effectively no survey style volumes brought to market with the broader public in mind. Given the many monographs and exhibition catalogues that have been written about these photographers individually, the gathering of a representative sample of the various artists’ work is the lesser of the challenges here; the real test falls to the essay and how coherently and insightfully it ties together what heretofore have been generally separate but parallel narratives. We have all been searching for someone to help connect the dots and fill in the gaps; I’m happy to report that this book is certainly a good start.

One important semantic definition is required before we get to the analysis: what is it we mean by the term the “school”? In general, I think there are two possible answers as applied to artistic movements: the narrow – the education derived from a specific set of teachings/learnings (i.e. the how/what of the curriculum at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie or the Yale School of Art and how it was absorbed by specific students), and the broad – the larger geographic and temporal phenomenon (i.e. Düsseldorf or Helsinki as the umbrella term for a common style of working).

This volume (and its keystone essay) has chosen to focus on the Düsseldorf school in the broad sense, looking for the larger commonalities seen in its most successful and best known adherents. It lays at the feet of the Bechers the “emancipation of photography”: the critical artistic mindset that photography was fully equal to painting, the results of which are embodied in the downstream success of the students who wholeheartedly embraced this unorthodox-at-the-time concept. It also implies an amorphous teaching by osmosis approach, where the Bechers were effectively leading by example: off doing their own highly stringent and objective documentary work, using the series and typology as modes for working and comparison, all underneath a rigid conceptual framework, with the students watching and absorbing some or all of what they saw as they saw fit. The narrative is thus one of commonality rather than causation: the students all started from a generally similar location; as they grew and matured as artists and selectively incorporated the Bechers‘ teachings over time, they went off in different but often parallel directions.

While there are some anecdotal comparisons and back and forth between the artists, in general, the book follows each photographer down his or her own particular evolutionary path, often starting prior to their involvement with the Bechers, and running to the present, now decades after the teacher/student relationship has ended. Each photographer gets a short biographical analysis, often through the lens of the Düsseldorf similarities. We see some exploring the limits of conceptual ideas (Ruff, Hütte, Esser, Struth, Sasse), while others have consistently worked in subject matter based series (Höfer, Wunderlich, Nieweg, Struth); over time, many have experimented with the use of large formats and prints (Höfer, Hütte, Nieweg, Struth, Berges, Ruff, Esser, Gursky). The challenge here is that most of these artists have worked through a handful of different projects over their careers to date, moving back and forth between working styles and approaches – the Düsseldorf narrative is therefore circular and cyclical rather than strictly linear, the Bechers‘ influence waxing and waning as the artists continually evolve and reinvent themselves.

As such, the story of the Düsseldorf school is not nearly as neat and tidy as one might expect from the rigid Germans; the Bechers put down some foundation concepts, but their students have long since moved beyond those initial ideas. Perhaps it is the mark of great teachers that they imparted their wisdom and experience about successful methods for discovering one’s artistic voice through photography, without imposing their own specific vision too strongly.

While this book provides the satisfying summary and overview I have outlined, I found myself still wishing for more specifics; perhaps the next scholarly book on the Düsseldorf school needs to limit its scope to the period when the photographers were actually studying with the Bechers, and needs to cover in more detail how the curriculum was embodied in the early pictures. I’d also like to see more work from a broader range of the students (not just the “winners”) to see how the teachings got applied in different ways. Similarly, I think some commentary from the artists themselves on what they took away from the Becher experience would be enlightening. Clearly, all of these photographers have long since moved beyond their early education, but I for one would be interested to hear what if anything they still find of value.

Overall, this book fills a gaping hole in the history of photography. It provides a well-selected sampler of the work of the best known members of the Düsseldorf school and offers a readable explanation of how it all fits together. While I have an insatiable appetite for more on this group of photographers, this volume certainly delivers a solid and thoughtful introduction to one of the most important movements in contemporary photography.

Collector’s POV: In many ways, there isn’t much “new” information to be found in this book on the best known photographers in the group. It was therefore the sections on Petra Wunderlich, Simone Nieweg, Jörg Sasse, and Laurenz Berges that were the eye openers for me, in terms of exposing me more fully to some of the other students who are a little further out of spotlight. I also think the essay was helpful in clarifying my rudimentary understanding of the evolution of both Axel Hütte and Elger Esser, neither of which I have felt particularly comfortable with in the past.

Transit Hub:

  • Review: Conscientious (here)

David Maisel, Library of Dust @Von Lintel

JTF (just the facts): A total of 7 large scale color images, framed in black with no mat, and hung in the single room gallery space and above the reception desk. All of the works are c-prints from 2005. The prints come in three sizes: 64×48, in editions of 1, 40×30, in editions of 5, and 14×11, in editions of 3. The exhibit contains 6 images in the largest size and 1 image in the medium size. A monograph of this body of work was published by Chronicle Books in 2008 (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While we often try to convince ourselves that seeing photography on our computer screens is an acceptable substitute for the first hand experience, once in a while a body of work comes along that systematically destroys this nice theory. David Maisel’s Library of Dust first surfaced several years ago on the West coast, and we have since seen JPEG reproductions of the work in plenty of articles and reviews. But now that the work has finally reached New York, I can say that even though I was largely familiar with what I was going to see, I was wholly unprepared for the powerful effect these prints actually have in person.

At first glance, these are deceptively simple pictures: straight forward still life shots of copper canisters set against an enveloping black background. Some are burnished to a shiny glow, but most are covered with colorful corrosions and salty encrustations that have built up along the edges and seams. What is altogether surprising is how astonishingly and sublimely beautiful these objects are. The mineral deposits and residues cover the spectrum from sparkling blues and aquamarine greens to acidic yellows and rusty reds; the thick layers of color look alternately like Italian marbled papers and top down views of rugged coastlines and coral reefs. Swirls, waves, bubbles and bumpy sediments are piled on in ever more complex and chaotic forms. Chemical reactions have never looked so good, especially when enlarged to such a massive scale.

Amid all this loveliness, however, comes the jarring backstory to these objects, which turns the beauty on its head and adds a darker, more philosophical meaning to the photographs. The canisters contain the unclaimed cremated remains of patients at the Oregon State Insane Asylum. The simple cans had been sealed in a less than water tight vault for more than a century; the combination of the flood water and the leaching chemicals from the ashes inside caused the corrosions that now decorate the outsides.

These historical facts add an entirely different set of conceptual questions and ideas to the works. Some might see them as meditations on death and passing of time. Others might center on the horrors of such hospitals, or the emptiness of living and dying, abandoned and forgotten by family. Perhaps there is even some glimmer of hope in the idea that the individual personalities of these patients seem to have been reborn in the colorful residues (the images becoming anonymous “portraits”). However the viewer interprets the narrative, the pictures now have many more layers of meaning, and a striking duality that is both inviting and repulsive at the same time. This tension between the visual and conceptual is what makes these works stand out. These prints are also an excellent example of the intelligent use of monumental scale: the scope of the biggest prints highlights the seductive elegance of the objects, which in turn amplifies the contrast with the haunting backstory; not big for the sake of big, but big to increase the power of the emotional payoff.

Overall, these are accomplished, mature images that successfully work on multiple levels. Don’t miss the chance to see these prints in person; they’re really nothing like the thumbnails you’ve seen before.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows:

  • The 64×48 prints are $15000 each
  • The 40×30 prints range from $6600 to $7500, based on the place in the edition
  • The 14×11 prints are $2100, or can be purchased in sets of 5 for $9000

Maisel’s work has very little secondary market history, so it is difficult to discern any meaningful price pattern; as a result, interested collectors will need to follow up at retail. While these works don’t fit into any of our collecting genres, my favorites were the images that have become extensive harmonies in blue, covering every available inch of the canisters in waves of churning color.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Features: Artforum (here), BLDGBLOG (here), LA Times (here), Flyp (here)
  • Interview: Archinect, 2006 (here)
  • Book review: Lens Culture (here)

David Maisel, Library of Dust
Through February 27th

Von Lintel Gallery
520 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

Von Lintel also has a new blog, with plenty of detailed information on David Maisel (here)

Versus @Hous Projects

JTF (just the facts): A group show comprised of a total of 63 photographs from 18 different photographers, variously framed and matted, and densely hung (salon style) in the entry and gallery spaces that wrap around to the right. The show was curated by collector/blogger/photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel. (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers are included in the exhibit, with the number of images on view in parentheses and detailed specs to follow. Unfortunately, the exhibition checklist is full of typos, mistakes, and omissions; in addition, the images on the website do not entirely match those on the walls (I was told some were sent to LA, so some replacements were hung), so consider the information below to be the best of what was available at the time (please feel free to correct any inaccuracies via the comments):

  • Jen Davis (3): Chromogenic prints, 20×24, in editions of 10, from 2003/2005.
  • Amy Elkins (3): C-prints, 20×16 or 24×20, uneditioned, from 2008.
  • Elizabeth Fleming (3): Giclee prints, 14×21, in editions of 15, from 2007/2008.
  • Kris Graves (3): Digital chromogenic prints, 16×20, uneditioned, from 2006/2008.
  • Molly Landreth (4): Digital pigment prints, 16×29, uneditioned, from 2007.
  • Alex Leme (4): Archival pigment prints, 16×24 or 10×15, uneditioned, from 2009.
  • Gina LeVay (3): Archival pigment prints, 20×24, in edtions of 10, from 2007/2008.
  • Ruben Natal-San Miguel (7): C-prints, 16×20 or 24×20, in editions of 6 and 5 respectively, from 2007/2009.
  • Eric Ogden (3): Archival pigment prints, 30×40 or 20×24, in editions of 4 and 6 respectively, from 2009.
  • Cara Phillips (3): Gelatin silver prints, 30×24, in editions of 5, from 2008.
    Matthew Pillsbury (3): Archival pigment prints, 13×19, uneditioned, from 2008.
  • Nadine Rovner (4): Archival pigment inkjet prints, 24×30, in editions of 10, from 2009.
  • Zoe Strauss (4): C-prints, 12×16, uneditioned, from 2000-2010.
  • Hank Willis Thomas (2): Lightjet prints, 26×60 and 30×40, uneditioned, from 2008.
  • Mickalene Thomas (4): Mounted c-prints, 30×24 or reverse, in editions of 5, from 2009.
  • Phillip Toledano (3): Digital c-prints, 12×16, in editions of 6, from 2008/2009.
  • Brian Ulrich (5): Pigmented ink and chromogenic prints, 14×11 (or reverse) or 40×30, in editions of 5, from 2006, 2008, and 2009.
  • Michael Wolf (2): Lambda prints, 27×34, in editions of 9, from 2007.

Comments/Context: A generation ago, the support community that a photographer built around him or herself was largely made up of other local photographers and artists, the people who had attended the same art schools or summer workshops, and perhaps a few long distance friendships with like-minded photographers or curators in other citites. With the advent of the Internet and social networking tools, emerging photographers from around the world can now interact with each other much more easily; photographers working to secure their first shows and gallery relationships all have websites displaying their work, and many are active bloggers/writers. Communities of international photographers are springing up all over the place, and a sense of collegial inclusiveness and acceptance is the norm.

Via his enthusiastic support of emerging photographers on his blog ARTmostfierce (here), active collector and photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel has become an evangelist and champion for many lesser known photographers. He has curated shows of emerging and established work, collaborated with artists, marketed limited edition prints, and used his bully pulpit to advocate for causes he cares about, all with a relentless energy and positivity that is contagious. He is an example of a collector who has deeply engaged with the contemporary photography community, and along the way, has transformed himself into something quite a bit more than an anonymous acquirer of pictures.

From a collector’s perspective, this show is really a sampler of early career photographers that are “on the bubble”; some have recently settled into solid gallery representation, while others are still looking for that elusive first partnership. Much of the work on display will be familiar to those that travel in emerging photography circles (most of it still relatively inexpensive); many of the same names often appear in group shows both in galleries and online, and several are prominent in the active shaping of the virtual photography community. Natal-San Miguel has built this exhibit by pairing works by sets of photographers, creating juxtapositions, echoes and opposites of style, subject matter, and mood.

If there is a common theme to this diverse collection of work, I think it is a rejection of the cool conceptualism and global scale of the Dusseldorf school in favor of a more intimate, sensitive brand of photography, much of it emotional portraiture and story telling on an inward or personal level. In these images, the photographers explore vulnerabilities and stereotypes, inadequacies and surface imperfections, hopes and dreams (not all realized). The challenge with this approach is that it’s tricky to find the right balance between compelling human-sized narratives and overly precious self-consciousness; many of these artists are still so early in their careers that they’re still discovering and refining their voices, so what we see here is clearly just the beginning.

Given the wide mix of photographers included in the show, it’s not hugely surprising that the results are a bit uneven. While I won’t go through each of the bodies of work on display, here are three that I found to be the most successful:

  • Phillip Toledano: Toledano’s pictures of his aging father are very nuanced, so much so that it is easy to walk right by and not see them for what they are (which is exactly what I did in my first turn around the gallery). But after a second deeper look, I found these pictures to be the most moving in this exhibit (by a pretty wide margin). The washing of his father’s hair and the twilight view of the sunlight over the city are both strongly evocative images.
  • Amy Elkins: I first saw Amy Elkins’ Wallflower series of male portraits against colorful flowered wallpapers in the project room at Yancey Richardson a year or so ago, and as the months have passed and I have encountered them again in other contexts, they are growing on me. Even though we are not portrait collectors, I am liking the mixture of feminity and masculinity they explore more and more, as well as the subtle openness and vulnerability she has deftly captured.
  • Cara Phillips: Using ultraviolet light, Phillips has made penetrating head shot portraits that reveal the skin imperfections that lie beneath the surface of her subjects’ faces. While these images are somewhat reminiscent of Chuck Close’s daguerreotypes (that often highlight all kinds of bodily flaws and blemishes), I found these portraits striking and memorable. I’d enjoy seeing one hung next to a 1980s colored background portrait by Thomas Ruff.

Curatorially, I think the show would have benefitted from a tighter edit; there are too many pictures, jammed too close together. I think the same ideas could have been brought forth with much more clarity had the pairings been limited to two pictures each; the images would have had more room to breathe and the juxtapositions would have been sharper. My favorites list would also normally have included both Mickalene Thomas and Brian Ulrich, but the specific images chosen for this show seemed weaker than others I carry around in my head from prior viewings. So while I like the spirit of warm inclusiveness that this show embodies, I think a heavier editing hand might have cut away some distracting flabbiness that wouldn’t have been missed.

Overall, this show provides a helpful snapshot of a group of increasingly visible photographers who are working hard to establish themselves (and their point of view) more fully. There’s a nugget of something new going on in all of this work; how much of it will evolve into something even more powerful and lasting still very much remains to be seen.

Collector’s POV: The photographers included in this show are a mix of represented and unrepresented artists, with little or no secondary market history. In the list below, I have included the prices of the works on display, as well as any gallery representation that I could discern (if I have missed any, please add them in the comments). As I mentioned above, the printed price list was somewhat unreliable as a source of information, so recheck the data with the gallery as appropriate:

  • Jen Davis: $2100 or $2500 each. Represented by Lee Marks Fine Art (here).
  • Amy Elkins: $1200 or $1500, based on size. Represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery (here).
  • Elizabeth Fleming: $450 each.
  • Kris Graves: $800 each.
  • Molly Landreth: $400 each.
  • Alex Leme: $400 or $600, based on size.
  • Gina LeVay: $1200 each.
  • Ruben Natal-San Miguel: $500 or $1000, based on size.
  • Eric Ogden: $800, $1500, or $3000.
  • Cara Phillips: $2600 each.
  • Matthew Pillsbury: $1800 or $2200. Represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery (here).
  • Nadine Rovner: $1200 each.
  • Zoe Strauss: $750 each. Represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here).
  • Hank Willis Thomas: $6500 each. Represented by Jack Shainman Gallery (here).
  • Mickalene Thomas: $6500 each. Represented by Lehman Maupin Gallery (here).
  • Phillip Toledano: $1700 each.
  • Brian Ulrich: $900 or $4000, based on size. Represented by Julie Saul Gallery (here).
  • Michael Wolf: $5000 each. Represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here) and Robert Koch Gallery (here).

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

Each of the photographers in the show has an artist website and/or blog. These sites are linked below:

  • Jen Davis (here)
  • Amy Elkins (here)
  • Elizabeth Fleming (here)
  • Kris Graves (here)
  • Molly Landreth (here)
  • Alex Leme (here)
  • Gina LeVay (here)
  • Ruben Natal-San Miguel (here)
  • Eric Ogden (here)
  • Cara Phillips (here)
  • Matthew Pillsbury (here)
  • Nadine Rovner (here)
  • Zoe Strauss (here)
  • Hank Willis Thomas (here)
  • Mickalene Thomas (here)
  • Phillip Toledano (here)
  • Brian Ulrich (here)
  • Michael Wolf (here)

Versus
Through March 8th

Hous Projects
31 Howard Street
New York, NY 10013

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