Mitch Epstein @Sikkema Jenkins

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 large scale black and white photographs, framed in black with no mat, and hung in the entry, the main gallery space, and one of the back rooms. All of the prints are selenium toned gelatin silver prints made in 2011/2012. The works on view are sized 68x54, in editions of 6+2AP; a smaller 40x30 size is also available for each image (but not on display), also in editions of 6+2AP. (Installation shots at right.).

Comments/Context: It doesn't take much thinking to quickly come up with a list of photographers across the history of the medium who have made great images of trees. Starting in the 19th century, Fox Talbot, Le Gray, Cuvelier, Watkins, Kinsey, and Muybridge and many others might be the beginning of a small sampler. Cross into the 20th century and the list explodes: Atget, Renger-Patsch, Stieglitz, Strand, Adams (both Ansel and Robert), Sudek, Friedlander, Porter, on and on, evolving into a more conceptual realm with folks like Rodney Graham, Myoung Ho Lee and Robert Voit. With his new work, Mitch Epstein has stepped into this long line of tree lovers, documenting the towering, ancient specimens that hide in and around New York city.

Epstein's photographs are decidedly old school: large format black and white works, rich in detail and tonality. Most are portraits of the individual trees, capturing their idiosyncrasies and personalities with up close botanical attention. These pictures are classically beautiful, documenting thick trunks, cascading branches, and spindly growths, square in the frame (with just a tiny bit of elevation) and rendered with meticulous care.

The challenge with this kind of perfect image making is that it loses the hand of the photographer. In many of these photographs, it's hard to see Mitch Epstein. A few of the images step back just a bit to give a sense of the larger human context (a foggy Staten Island neighborhood, the wintry apartment buildings of Washington Square, or a row of Korean storefronts in Queens) and these juxtapositions and small ironies seem to connect better to the ideas in Epstein's earlier work. There is more of a sense of the tree being surrounded by the encroaching human environment, and persevering/triumphing against the odds, and I found these works more fresh and successful. I think the concept of time scale (that of tree versus that of the city around it) could have been explored even more.

These prints are very large, and I think this is a case where the scale is a bit too much. At this size, there is an opportunity to fall into the pictures, to be drawn in from across the room and enveloped in their stories. I'm sure this was the point, and given the massive size of the trees themselves, I guess I can understand the logic. But I couldn't help feeling like the photographs were too big, and that a slightly smaller size would have made the encounters less operatic and more intimate.

All in, these are certainly well made, formally strong tree photographs. I think the ones that go further and tell broader contextual tales are more representative of Epstein's approach to photography, and as a result, I think this subset will be the group that is the most durably intriguing.

Collector's POV: The 68x54 prints in this show are priced at $28000 each; the smaller 40x30 prints which are also available are $15000 each. Epstein's work has become more available in the secondary markets in past few years, but the volume of prints for sale has still been very small. Prices for those lots that have come up for auction have ranged between $3000 and $15000.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• NY Times Magazine (here)
• Interview: NY Times 6th Floor (here)
• In Focus: The Tree @Getty (here)

Mitch Epstein

Through April 14th

Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

530 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

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.

Book: Mitch Epstein, American Power

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2009 by Steidl (here). 144 pages, including 63 color plates and an essay by the artist. The images in the book were taken across the United States between 2003 and 2008. (Cover shot at right, via Photo-Eye.)

Comments/Context: In the future, when we look back on the first decade of the 21st century, I think Mitch Epstein's American Power will be one of a handful of cornerstone photography books that will be considered thoroughly representative of the post 9/11 Bush years. Its catchy double-meaning title succinctly exposes the focal points of the period: energy, in its many forms and its pervasive impact, and power, in the form of political, governmental, industrial, and corporate influence and how it permeated the fabric of the society.

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The essay in the back of the monograph is particularly enlightening in terms of setting the mood for the pictures. During the project, Epstein was routinely hassled and detained, harassed and searched, and generally prevented from making the pictures he wanted to make by the various powers that be; his frustration was real and palpable. As a result, there are very few "insider" images of the power industry in this book; nearly all of the images are taken from afar, settled into the surrounding landscape and given context by the local environment. Unlike Edward Burtynsky's recent work which centers on the massive and monumental scale of the oil industry, Epstein's images of the world of energy are grounded in human sized neighborhoods. The cooling towers, smokestacks, windmills and refinery pipes loom in the distance, hovering over otherwise normal everyday activities (football practice, backyard gardening, a riverside baptism, smoking a cigarette, golf, cattle grazing, fishing), a constant "Big Brother" reminder of the insignificance (and powerlessness) of the ordinary citizen. Fear is never far away in these images as well; bored guards with machine guns, surveillance cameras, fences and barriers, safety refuges, gas pumps hawking "terror-free oil", they all become part of the energy narrative.

What I found impressive about these images is that nearly all of them have subtle details and hidden ironies to discover. Epstein isn't shouting or hectoring. He has put forth an understated narrative that encourages both balanced and conflicted thoughts: the enormous American flag draped across the side of a refinery, smiling "Boots" Hern and her handgun, the mind-numbing boredom of the nuclear regulatory office time sheets and phone logs, the pipeline defaced with "bend over baby", the post-Katrina mattress in the tree, the white "bathtub ring" left by the drought at the Hoover Dam, the nuclear missile in the lobby at the DOE, and the hurricane weather map on the Jumbotron at the Republican National Convention (held at the Xcel Enegry Center of all places). At first glance, it's easy to miss these tiny subtexts and wry jokes; when they are finally recognized, they transform the images into something altogether more complicated and disturbing.

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Stylistically, it seems Epstein has used the 1970s mindset of Robert Adams and his views on suburban expansion as raw material, and applied some of the same thinking on a more personal level to the current/recent energy situation. There are also parallels to Alec Soth's The Last Days of W in terms of the overall level of exhausted and resigned angst. Overall, this is an excellent body of work, both well crafted and thought-provoking, and likely to resonate more loudly and fully as the years pass.
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Collector’s POV: Mitch Epstein is represented by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York (here). The works from this series are c-prints, made in two sizes: 70x92 (in editions of 4) and 45x58 (in editions of 6). While Epstein's work has not been consistently available in the secondary markets in past years, the recent Berman sale at Christie's had quite a few of his prints; prices for these lots ranged between $3000 and $15000.

Transit Hub:

• Artist website (here)
• Features: NY Times, 2009 (here)
• Book reviews: Modern Painters (here), Conscientious (here)
• Interviews: Bomb (here), Foto8 (here), Neiman Storyboard (here)
• Gallery review: NY Times, 2007 (here)

Mitch Epstein in the NY Times Magazine

A handful of Mitch Epstein's images from his ongoing series American Power were used to highlight an article about wind power in this past weekend's New York Times Magazine (here). There was an additional picture used on the table of contents page, but I can't seem to find a link to that specific image anywhere (it was another one of wind turbines, in this case, flanking a golf course).

Epstein has been working on this series for many years now (artist site here, review of 2007 Sikkema Jenkins show here), and new images seem to find their way into the press from time to time. With all the attention focused on climate change and energy policy in this country, these images couldn't have come at a more opportune time. A monograph of the entire body of work is in progress, to be published by Steidl in September (here).