AIPAD’s NYC Photography Show: ‘Eight Photographs Out Of Thousands’
Earlier this month (April 4-7), the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, widely known as AIPAD, celebrated its 39th edition of The Photography Show. Situated at Pier 94 on the Hudson River in New York City it featured nearly 100 fine art photography galleries and project spaces from around the world. Also on premises were numerous talks, and some two dozen plus booths populated by book dealers, publishers, and photography related organizations.
Roughly speaking, 57% of the galleries represented came from the US, with the majority from New York City (29) and California (13). Twenty galleries came from Europe (France 7, London 6), 2 from Asia, 2 from South America, and one – the Stephen Bulger Gallery from Toronto, Canada. I specifically mention Bulger, as I have seen a number of wonderful exhibitions there, and I have long loved the city of Toronto.
If the truth be told, each of these eight works entered my brain even before I began to question myself – which I have been doing ever since I visited the exhibition – what it was about these images, among the thousands on display, which forced themselves on me. One thing is sure in my self-diagnosing; I found pieces of myself, past and present, living in each of these photographs. Hopefully, some of these photos will speak to you too.
The format that I chose use to present these photographs lists each of the eight galleries contact information, the Wikipedia and artists’ website links, if available, and a note or two, supplied by the artist or the gallery:
Scott Nichols Gallery,
49 Geary, Suite 415
San Francisco, CA 94108
p 415 788 4641
c 415 350 9994
info@scottnicholsgallery.com
www.scottnicholsgallery.com
A private dealer since 1980, Scott Nichols opened the gallery in 1992, specializing in classic and contemporary photography with an emphasis on group f/64
As is often the case with large exhibitions which feature thousands of work of art – in this exhibition primarily 19th, 20, and 21 century contemporary photographs – I visited every gallery and project space and selected the photographs for this piece that captured my mind’s eye. I was hoping to discover 10 such photographs but only 8 worked their way into my psyche.
Imogene Cunningham (1883-1976) The Unmade Bed, 1957, Vintage gelatin silver print 9 ½” x 12 ¾” signed and dated $38,000.
Imogene Cunningham (1883 – 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to the sharp-focus rendition of simple subjects.
https://www.imogencunningham.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_Cunningham
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Todd Webb Archive
61 Pleasant Street
Portland, ME 04101
Phone: 207-879-0042
info@toddwebbarchive.com
The Todd Webb Archive was established to educate the public about 20th-century photographer Todd Webb. This year, the archive is making rare, never-before-seen vintage work available.
Todd Webb (1905-2000) La Salle at Amsterdam, New York 1946, 11” x 14” Vintage Gelatin Silver Print, Signed, Titled, and dated by the photographer.
Todd Webb was an American photographer notable for documenting everyday life and architecture in cities such as New York, Paris, as well as from the American West. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Webb
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Winter Works on Paper
167 North Ninth Street, Apartment 11
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone: 718-599-0910
winterworks@verizon.net, www.winterworksonpaper.com
Winter Works on Paper was opened for business by David Winter in 1993. Since then he has created a singular niche in the world of print, drawings, and photographs. Trained as a sculptor, David Winter has developed an eye for works on paper that are decorative and graphically compelling but also unusual and off-beat. From a Kindergarten cut-paper design to an architectural by Piranesi, from a pressed fern for the 19th century to a photograph of the moon’s surface, from a poster from the Russian revolution to an anonymous snapshot; the eccentric plurality of media and imagery are brought together under one roof.
Classroom, hand colored G.S. P. circa 1950, $1500. 00, photographer unknown.
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Deborah Bell Photographs
16 East 71st Street, Suite 1D, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10021
Phone: 212-249-9400
info@deborahbellphotographs.com
www.deborahbellphotographs.com
Deborah Bell Photographs has been a dealer of fine-art photographs since 1988.
The gallery offers a broad range of works spanning the history of photography, concentrating on the 20th century, with special emphasis on European photography between the world wars; American photography from the 1940s-1970s; selected fashion photography; and photo-documents of conceptual art and performance. Along with presenting innovative exhibitions and representing living photographers and estates, our goal is to work closely with individuals and institutions in building collections of depth and quality.
Mariana Cook (American, b. 1955)
Sea Wall, Blackhead, Burren, Ireland, 3 July 2005
from an edition of six prints in this size. Gelatin silver print,
mounted, signed, titled, dated & numbered 3/6 in ink on mount verso
image 36” x 36″ (91.4 x 91.4 cm), mounted 38” x 38″ (96.5 x 96.5 cm)
$13,700 framed .
STONE WALLS was conceived by Mariana Cook, the last protégé of Ansel Adams, at her home on Martha’s Vineyard on the day before Thanksgiving 2002. After 56 cows strayed through a crumbling section of the stone wall she shares with her neighbor, Cook studied the tumbled wall and was struck by its beauty. With that inspiration, Cook spent the next eight years traveling to farms, towns, and temples in Peru, Great Britain, Ireland, the Mediterranean, New England, and Kentucky in pursuit of dry stone walls. As Wendell Berry writes about stone walls in his essay in Cook’s book, Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries, “They are products equally of art and nature. They look both human and natural.” He concludes that the photographs are “a record of a kind of rural life by now almost lost, but certainly of worth and possibly indispensable.” http://www.cookstudio.com
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Yancy Richardson Gallery
525 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 646-230-9610
http://www.yanceyrichardson.com
Founded in 1995, Yancy Richardson, one of the preeminent galleries in-photo-based art features contemporary, as well as photography from the 20 th and 21st century. The gallery is committed to working with museums, private institutions, leading art collectors and other galleries to advance the careers of the artists we represent. Their current program includes critically recognized, emerging photographers such as Bryan Graf, Zanele Muholi and Paul Mpagi Sepuya as well as mid-career artists such as Mitch Epstein, Laura Letinsky, Andrew Moore, Mickalene Thomas and Hellen van Meene. Additionally, the gallery regularly exhibits the work of established masters, including August Sander, Ed Ruscha, and William Eggleston.
Andrew Moore
Back Room at the Harmony Club, Selma, AL, 2017, 50 x 60 inches
Archival pigment print, Edition 5 of 5, $18,500
The result of twelve trips over three years, Moore’s work in the American South uses historic homes, both grand and modest, the preserved backroom of a Jewish social club, the curtained entry to a Freemason’s temple, a worm-eaten map of Hale County and a ruined bridge in a verdant swamp to suggest the economic, social and cultural divisions that characterize the South and the love of history, tradition and land that binds its citizens. Following in-depth explorations of the economically ravaged city of Detroit (2007 – 2009) and the mythic high plains region along the 100th meridian (2011 – 2014), the work continues the artist’s investigation of “the inner empire” of the United States.
https://andrewlmoore.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_l._Moore
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Peter Fetterman Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: 310-453-6463
Born in London, Peter Fetterman has been deeply involved in the medium of photography for over 30 years. Initially a filmmaker and collector, he set up his first gallery over 20 years ago. He was one of the pioneer tenants of Bergamot Station, the Santa Monica Center of the Arts when it first opened in 1994. The gallery has one of the largest inventories of classic 20th Century photography in the country particularly in humanist photography. Diverse holdings include work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado, Steve McCurry, Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Willy Ronis, André Kertesz, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lillian Bassman, Pentti Sammallahti, Sarah Moon and Jeffrey Conley.
Richard Corman (United States, b. 1954)
Basquiat A Portrait V, 1984/printed 2018, Archival digital C-print
Paper – 30″x40″, Matted – 38″x44″ Edition 2 of 12 Signed, Titled, Dated, Numbered in ink on verso. $15,000 1984 © Richard Corman, Courtesy of Peter Fetterman
Richard Corman is an American photographer, best known for his work as a portrait photographer. His subjects include musicians, actors, athletes, artists, writers and humanitarians. https://richardcorman.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Corman_(photographer)
“In 1984, I was asked to photograph Jean Michel Basquiat for L’Uomo Vogue. When I walked into the artist’s loft I was immediately engulfed by a wave of creative confusion. The room was a swirl of people, paint, canvas, color and smoke. Off in the corner was Basquiat submerged and almost invisible. My immediate instinct was to remove him from all the distractions and place him in front of a thin 4’ wall of grey seamless paper. I wanted to see behind his eyes and allow him to tell the most elemental part of his story – the human spirit behind the art. It is tempting to second guess the decision I made that day at 57 Great Jones St, but I was interested in a simple portrait of a complicated genius. I was a young artist myself and I was drawn to the immediacy of this painter’s presence. I believed in that moment that less was more and I knew no better solution. During that short period of time, less than one hour, I shot 79 frames. While each of my photographs are similar in structure from frame to frame, Basquiat’s intensity, his intelligence, anger, curiosity, gaze, and hands and body language mutated and shifted. Those faceted revelations moved me to share this work for the first time. His luminous presence and indelible talent shines through the simplicity of the setting. I don’t regret my decision.” – Richard Corman
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keith@keithdelellisgallery.com
Keith de Lellis Gallery
41 East 57th Street, Suite 703
New York, New York 10022
Phone: 212-327-1482
Vintage Photography, Photographs by American and European photographers of the 20th Century , including Italian photography, fashion, industrial, and New York School.
George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) Untitled, 7” x 9”, circa 1940, vintage gelatin print, $9,500 Sold.
George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion and commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced some photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from the 1940s that were acquired by the Kinsey Institute after his death in 1955. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Platt_Lynes
Note: An exhibition of Georges Platt Lynes Portraits, Nudes, & Dance is currently on view through May 23 at the Keith De Lellis Gallery.
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Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gasper Avenue,
Santa Fe, NM, 87501
Phone: 505- 992-0800
info@monroegallery.com
The Monroe Gallery of Photography specializes in classic black & white photography from the 20th and 21st century with an emphasis on humanist and photojournalist imagery. The gallery features work by renowned vintage photographers, and represents both contemporary and emerging photographers.
Stephen Wilkes (American, B. 1957)
Hurricane Sandy, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, 2012
Digital C-Print signed limited edition (3/12) $25,000
Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography.
As Stephen Wilkes intended, this photograph is incredibly beautiful yet tragic all at the same time. “I’ve often found that there is great power in telling difficult stories in a beautiful way. Interest in any given story wanes so quickly, yet it’s only through taking the time to go deeper that we get to a place of real understanding. I had to return to this story, and I wanted try to comprehend the scale of this storm. The only way for me to capture Sandy’s destructive fury was from above.” –Stephen Wilkes https://www.stephenwilkes.com , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wilkes
By Edward Rubin, Contributing Editor