Every Booth at the 2013 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 4 of 6

Start here for Part 1 of this series. It provides some background and explanation for what's going on in these lists.

Weinstein Gallery (here): Vera Lutter, $12000. This image (and the others in the series on the wall nearby) has some visual kinship with Kertész' famous picture, but introduces Lutter's own signature reversed out aesthetic to the composition.

David Zwirner (here): James Welling, $20000. Welling was fortunate to receive a solo show in such a prominently placed booth, right in front of the fair entrance. A pair of these stark black and white abstractions (that look almost like industrial girders) hung on the outside wall.

Catherine Edelman Gallery (here): Keliy Anderson-Staley, $1000-4400 each. This installation of modern tintype portraits was striking and personal. Proof that the use of an antique process need not seem old timey or preciously retro.

Weston Gallery (here): Paul Strand, $65000. Down in the weeds Strand is always worth a deliberate inspection.

 

Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc. (here): Julia Margaret Cameron, POR. An iconic portrait, one of the true greats in the history of the medium. Rich, haunting, and penetrating. I didn't need to ask the price.

Laurence Miller Gallery (here): Ray K. Metzker, $125000. While nearly all of Metzker's composites are astonishing, this car and lamp image layers light and shadow into a gentle rhythm.

Gallery 19/21 (here): Mario Giacomelli, $9000. This looking straight down image by Giacomelli recalls Moholy-Nagy, with buildings flattened into tiny squares.

Paul M. Hertzmann Inc. (here): Imogen Cunningham, $150000. This was the best Cunningham floral at the fair. Irises aren't always exciting, but this one has a richness and luminosity that is extraordinary.

Staley-Wise Gallery (here): Richard Avedon, $30000. How to add motion to an otherwise static composition - the lively poof of Jean Shrimpton's hair.

Contemporary Works/Vintage Works (here): Raoul Ubac, POR. I haven't seen many Ubac prints so it was a treat to see this clashing, overlapped, solarized nude, the bodies seemingly all cut up and smashed together in a chaotic muddle.

Stephen Bulger Gallery (here): André Kertész, $4800, $35000, and $4800. An important reminder to keep those artist greeting cards.

Brancolini Grimaldi (here): Heidi Specker, £10000. Rough rock walls, flattened into texture and edges, or a hint of Siskind in a modern form.

ClampArt (here): Mark Morrisroe, $27500. Morrisroe's sandwich negative tribute to Diane Arbus, a lonely bird in a murky fog.

Robert Mann Gallery (here): Mike Mandel, $4000 each. A fun series of car window portraits, full of goofy faces and genuine warmth.

Continue to Part 5 here.

2010 AIPAD Review, Part 1 of 4

The 2010 AIPAD Photography Show in New York last week was once again the dominant event on the annual American photography calendar, at least for collectors like us. With 76 exhibitors (mostly galleries and private dealers, but with a few booksellers thrown in for good measure), AIPAD remains the single best place to see the entire breadth of photography, from 19th century to contemporary, on display in one place at one time in the United States; collectors, curators, and photographers from all over the world come to New York specifically for this show just to see what is on view and available.

I made three separate trips to the show this year: a visit to the Wenesday night opening, as well as more focused sessions on Thursday and Friday afternoons. In between an active review of the booths, I met with all kinds of people: collectors large and small, working photographers, musuem curators, and particularly gallery owners/dealers. For the first time ever, I think I spent more time talking (and listening and learning) than I did looking. This is not to say that I didn't end each day with a glassy eyed stare, earned through an overload of visual stimulation; I just interleaved meetings into spurts of booth scouring for a completely full calendar.

This 2010 AIPAD Review will be divided into 4 parts. The first three posts will be the customary booth reports, with lists of the photographers on view (the number of pictures by each in parentheses) and some additional commentary or a specific image (and its details) as further illustration. Given the scope of this fair, I have not attempted to create a complete count of everything on display - there was just too much; there will only be reports on about half of the booths, mainly chosen by pictures that really grabbed my attention or that I subjectively thought deserved some additional discussion; those that have been ommitted were not any less good necessarily, they just didn't stop me in my tracks enough to keep me from relentlessly moving on. As an aside, I seem to have developed a kind of strange x-ray vision (perhaps a byproduct of too much fair-going) - I scan the contents of a booth and often a single image stands out as though lit by an invisible spotlight, while the rest of the images fall back into the blurry and less interesting periphery. It's a kind of "aha" moment, when something unexpected, unusual, or exciting is discovered amidst the normal smorgasbord of work we've generally seen before. The final post in the series will try to step up a level or two and consider some of the ideas, patterns, and conclusions I've drawn from this year's fair; seeing such a plethora of photography isn't just about checklists and prices - there are larger themes present that cut across easy divisions/summaries and are worth a little bit deeper discussion.

For those of you who can never get enough and like to compare alternate viewpoints, a few additional AIPAD reviews worth checking out are those by collector/blogger Evan Mirapaul (here), gallery owner/blogger James Danziger (here and here), and Ken Johnson of the NY Times (here).

So let's get started. The galleries presented are in no particular order, although I've tried to spread some favorites out across the three posts. Apologies for the marginal images, as they are often marred by reflections or glare:

Paul Hertzmann (here): Lisette Model (1), Harry Callahan (1), Ilse Bing (1), Lucia Moholy (1), Eugène Atget (1), Brassaï (1), Imogen Cunningham (2), Francis Bruguière (2), Leo Dohmen (1), Consuelo Kanaga (1), Edward Weston (2), Margaret Bourke-White (1), Ansel Adams (1), Osamu Shiihara (3), Gertrude Käsebier (1), Dorothea Lange (1), Gerard Petrus Fieret (1), plus 4 bins. We have quite a few Cunninghams in our collection and I can say unequivocally that the Cunningham nude of Portia Hume (1930) below was the best picture I saw at AIPAD this year. We have seen this image illustrated in several books over the years, but we have never seen an actual print of this work (vintage or otherwise) anywhere; it was already sold by the time I got to the booth at the opening night party.

Michael Shapiro Photographs (here): Ansel Adams (2), Frederick Sommer (1), Minor White (2), Edward Weston (2), Dorothea Lange (1), Brett Weston (1), Florence Henri (1), Margaret Bourke-White (2), Eugene Smith (1), Kurt Baasch (1), Martin Munkacsi (1), Robert Frank (2), Manuel Alvarez Bravo (2), Edward Steichen (1), Helen Levitt (1), Berenice Abbott (2), Irving Penn (1), Danny Lyon (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Hannes Beckmann (1), and a group of vernacular images on the outside wall (UPDATE: I misidentified these images, see the comments). While many of the visitors were crowded around a vintage Frank in this booth, I most enjoyed the simplicity of the Minor White image below, with its contrasts of pattern and texture. (Minor White, Abstraction: The Bird with the Misplaced Heart, 1948, at $12500)

Howard Greenberg Gallery (here): Frank Gohlke (3), Robert Frank (2), Saul Leiter (4), William Klein (1), Louis Faurer (4), Ted Croner (4), Miroslav Tichý (5), Bruce Davidson (1), and a wall of Photo League work (13).

Lee Gallery (here): Paul Outerbridge (1), Pierre Dubreuil (1), Alfred Stieglitz (1), Heinrich Kühn (1), Robert Frank (1), László Moholy-Nagy (1), Walker Evans (1), Ilse Bing (2), Dorothea Lange (1), Carleton Watkins (3), Henry Bosse (2), plus 2 bins. The thing I like most about visiting the Lees is that I always feel like I depart smarter than when I arrived; they are friendly and welcoming, while also being deeply knowledgeable about the works they have available. Over several conversations during the fair, we had a debate about the 1929 Kühn rubber plant bromoil and its place in the context of 1920s German floral photography, considered the supply of top material in the market, covered some of the intricacies of Outerbridge's carbo process, and admired the intersecting lines and geometries (as well as what is presumably the photographer's shadow) in the Moholy image below (Untitled (Woman on Ship Deck, Finland), 1930, at $30000).

Edwynn Houk Gallery (here): Robert Polidori (3), Joel Meyerowitz (1), Stephen Shore (4), Sebastiaan Bremer (1), Vera Lutter (1), Man Ray (1), Brassaï (3), André Kertész (1), Bill Brandt (1), Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1), Imogen Cunningham (1). The Houk booth was an even mix of contemporary and vintage material. I had not seen the terrific Vera Lutter below before; it was large and eye catching in the center of the booth - a new look at a very overworked subject (Times Square VII, 2007, at $75000).

Amador Gallery (here): Robert Voit (7), Olaf Otto Becker (2), Taiji Matsue (2). In contrast to most of the overstuffed booths in this fair, the Amador booth was clean and fresh, with just a handful of large color images filling the walls. Anecdotally, I heard that there was significant interest (from museums and collectors alike) in the Voit cell tower trees.

Richard Moore Photographs (here): Ralph Steiner (3), Russell Lee (1), Jack Delano (1), Arthur Rothstein (1), Morris Engel (1), Weegee (2), Irving Penn (1), Ansel Adams (1), Helen Levitt (1), Bill Owens (1), Garry Winogrand (1), Lewis Hine (1), Margrethe Mather (1), Frederick Evans (1), Clarence White (1), Karl Struss (1), Frank Eugene (1), Arnold Genthe (1), Frances Johnston (1), plus 3 bins. The 1950s Ralph Steiner below was an image that I hadn't seen before; I liked the mixture of tonalities and layers of geometries, and it reminded me of a similar composition by Jeff Wall. (Ralph Steiner, Bissell Factory, Employee Washroom, 1959, at $5500)

Weston Gallery (here): Eugene Cuvelier (1), Edouard Baldus (1), Linnaeus Tripe (1), J.B. Greene (1), Frederick Evans (1), Anonymous (1 cyanotype pair), Roger Fenton (2), Antoine Claudet (1), Eugène Atget (1), Rod Dresser (1), Roman Loranc (2), André Kertész (8), Edward Weston (3), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Paul Strand (3), Johan Hagemeyer (2), Brett Weston (2), Edward Steichen (2), Wynn Bullock (2), Ansel Adams (2), Harry Callahan (1), and a few more in the back room. The best flower image at AIPAD this year was this delicate Hagemeyer. (Johan Hagemeyer, Talisman Rose, 1938, at $20000.)

Hemphill Fine Arts (here): Godfrey Frankel (3), William Christenberry (8), Don Donaghy (5), Franz Jantzen (1), Kendall Messick (1).

Yancey Richardson Gallery (here): Esko Männikkö (3), Alex Prager (3), Sharon Core (2), Andrew Moore (2), Mitch Epstein (2), Hellen Van Meene (4), Hiroh Kikai (3), August Sander (3), Rudy Burckhardt (2), Laura Letinsky (1), Lisa Kereszi (1). This booth was quite similar in concept to the gallery's Armory booth. The bold Epstein on the outside wall was the perfect antidote for those overwhelmed by the sea of black and white vintage photography at the fair. (Mitch Epstein, Liquidation Sale V, 2000, at $11000)

Eric Franck Fine Art (here): Norman Parkinson (5), Enzo Sellerio (3), Henri Cartier-Bresson (5), Paul Hart (2), Chris Killip (4), Graham Smith (4), Al Vandenberg (6), Antanas Sutkus (4), Rimaldas Viksraitis (4), Marketa Luskacova (2), Jindrich Streit (4), Josef Koudelka (3), Lottie Davies (3). Graham Smith was a new discovery for me. The image below has echoes of Brassaï's bar scenes, but with an English sensibility and a wonderful undertone of humor. (Graham Smith, I Thought I Saw Liz Taylor and Bob Mitchum in the Back Room of the Commercial, UK, 1984 at $5000.)


Photology (here): Helmut Newton (5), Carlo Mollino (8), Maura Banfo (4), Yasumasa Morimura (8), Andy Warhol (1), Robert Mapplethorpe (8), Gian Paolo Barbieri (5), Mario Schifano (4), Nobuyoshi Araki (4), Luigi Ghirri (4), Christopher Makos (11). A booth full of Polaroids by various artists.

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Continue to Part 2 here.

Cloud 9: Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston @Silverstein

JTF (just the facts): A total of 9 vintage gelatin silver prints (thus the clever show title): 2 by Imogen Cunningham, 4 by Alfred Stieglitz, and 3 by Edward Weston, all small prints, variously framed and hung on one blue wall in the front gallery. All of the images are from the 1920s and 1930s. (Installation shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Virtually every human being has at some point in their lives looked up into the sky and seen meaning in the clouds, even if it was simply a cluster of wisps that looked momentarily (to us) like a rabbit or a dog. Master photographers are no different, and this small amuse-bouche of a show gathers together a handful of examples of what three of them found when they pointed their cameras skywards.

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The most recognizable images in the show are the four Stieglitz Equivalents, images of diaphanous clouds, designed to evoke emotional states. Stieglitz made many of these images over his career; most are printed in the same small size, requiring intimate attention. The Weston clouds have more form to them; in one, the thin clouds are transformed into energetic fingers of fire. The Cunningham clouds were a surprise to me, as we had never seen cloud images made by her before. Her choice of puffy, cotton ball clouds gave her more freedom to play with negative and positive space.

Collector's POV: The Stieglitz images are priced between $55000 and $65000 (though not all are for sale), the Weston prints are between $25000 and $75000, and the Cunninghams are $20000 each. While clouds are not a part of our particular collection, I like the idea of having a small appetizer show in the front of the gallery that can explore a smaller theme in thoughtful detail, as a warm up for larger exhibit(s) in the back.

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

Cloud 9

Through April 25th

Silverstein Photography

535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Halsted Visit

Wendy Halsted Beard from the Halsted Gallery (website here) came by our house for a visit last week, and as always, we had a terrific time looking at lots of great prints in one sitting. If you aren't familiar with the Halsteds, Wendy's father, Tom Halsted, started the gallery back in the late 1960s and they've been at it ever since, although Wendy is now leading the effort for the most part. They're based in the Detroit metro area (Blooomfield Hills), but seem to be out and about constantly, seeing clients and doing photography/art fairs.

Over the years, the Halsteds have developed close personal relationships with a variety of great American photographers and have helped to build some tremendous collections. For us, the fact that the Halsteds are so close to the estate and family members of Imogen Cunningham (one of our favorite photographers) means they have the more vintage Cunningham inventory than any other dealer/gallery on the planet, by at least an order of magnitude (and believe me, we have scoured the earth for Cunningham prints, so we can say this with some authority). Beyond having the prints we're interested in, the Halsteds are low-key, nice folks, in a Midwestern kind of way, and have always been extremely fair with their pricing (not true of many other galleries/dealers out there); in general, they are the kind of people we enjoy doing business with.

It is virtually impossible for Wendy to bring her inventory by and not have us come away with something, and this visit was no exception. We'll have our newest Cunningham up on our collection website as soon as it comes back from the frame shop. In the meantime, I highly recommend that collectors out there take the time to connect with Wendy and see what she has in her traveling boxes.

In Search Of: Imogen Cunningham Tuberose

Virtually every photography collector we have ever met has a short list of pictures that they are constantly searching for. Every time a new auction catalogue comes, they look for these images. When they meet their favorite dealers, they ask about these images. Sometimes, these searches can go on for years.

This blog continues to be an experiment in how the process of collecting can be augmented by the virtual world. And so today, we are going to try a new feature, called In Search Of (you may remember a 70's TV show by the same name, but in that case, Leonard Nimoy was searching for Bigfoot and aliens, not photography). The concept behind this type of post is simple: tell the community of readers what you are looking for (no matter how random or arcane), and maybe someone out there will have some useful information to contribute. Perhaps a dealer will read this and have that exact work hiding in a flat file somewhere. Perhaps a collector will have the image and be ready to deaccession or trade it. Or perhaps someone will see a print in an obscure auction somewhere and call your attention to it.

To test drive the process, we'll start with an image that has been on our short list for a long time. If you have looked at our collection, you will likely notice that Imogen Cunningham is our largest holding. Her florals and nudes are amazing (we think), and the Tuberose, from the 1920s, is one of our favorites. Here's the image (scan courtesy of the Met collection):

Given all the florals that Cunningham did, you may ask yourself why we are interested in this specific image; it is clearly a good one, but there are many that are far more unusual. The reason is that my wife and I very much enjoy this particular type of flower; it has an amazing fragrance. So we're particularly interested in adding this image to our collection, as it has a sort of sentimental value for us.

We have only ever seen one print of this image in the market, and it was a later print that we somehow let slip through our fingers (and is now at the top of our "Ones That Got Away" list). At this point, we are interested in finding any high quality print we can: signed/unsigned, vintage/later, variant cropping, etc. as long as it is in decent condition. So if you know anything about a print of this image, please post a comment directly in the blog or send us an email at search@dlkcollection.com, if you prefer some privacy. We'll certainly update everyone if something good happens.

If you are a collector out there searching for something in particular, we'd be happy to feature your search next time we do one of these posts (perhaps once a week if there is interest). Send us (at the same search@dlkcollection.com address):

• a scan of the image you're chasing
• as many details as you have (artist, title, negative date, size etc.)
• how you'd like to be contacted (either via post in the blog or via email directly)

We are happy to be a blind router of information between parties to start, if privacy is of importance to either side (one collector friend likes to call this the "cone of silence"), but please be aware that we intend to get out of the way and let the parties talk between themselves as soon as possible, and that openness is what is making this process work.

We hope this idea just might work and people can get the word out about specific images they have been agonizing over for a long time. If it doesn't, we are no worse off, as there is little downside in our minds to readers knowing what we are looking for. And if, in the process, we expose people to new images they weren't aware of, then we're all getting educated along the way. If we've missed some important part of the process, by all means, let us know. Otherwise, let's see what happens.