Police Work: Photographs by Leonard Freed, 1972-1979 @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 47 black and white photographs, framed in black wood and matted, and hung against dark blue walls in two adjoining rooms on the second floor of the museum. The prints are either gelatin silver (vintage) or archival pigment prints (later), taken between 1972 and 1979. No physical dimensions or edition information was available. The exhibit also includes 2 glass cases displaying 5 books by Freed, 2 magazine spreads, and a copy of his press pass. A monograph of this body of work was published by Touchstone in 1980. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Leonard Freed's documentary photographs of 1970s era New York policemen and women tell a surprisingly even handed, matter-of-fact story about life on the beat. His pictures are less about dramatic moments, dangerous situations, and action-packed heroism, and more about the day-in, day-out life of rough and tumble police work. It's an inside look at the gritty realities of the occupation, its tedium, and the everyday people tasked with the job of trying to control an unruly world.

During these years, Freed actually rode around in patrol cars, spent time in police precincts, and tagged along for arrests and demonstrations. As a result, his photographs have an inside-the-barriers immediacy, often capturing the viewpoint of the officers or catching an unguarded moment during a break in the action. As a group, the pictures are unexpectedly comprehensive: suspects are frisked and handcuffed, bulletproof vests are put on, notes are taken, drug sales are spotted with binoculars from rooftops, confiscated handguns are forensically tested, composite sketches are drawn, and paperwork is filed. When the tension is low, the officers ham it up with parade watchers, play with kids and let them climb in the patrol car, or simply take a much-needed smoke break. Off duty, they lounge in above ground pools and ride motorcycles like the rest of us, but the sea of uniforms at one too many formal funerals is a poignant reminder of the ever present danger associated with this career choice.

What I liked best about this body of work is that it covers so much emotional landscape, without being too posed or biased. In Freed's tight photographs, the job of policing looks alternately high pressure and slack, unexpected and routine, fast paced and ploddingly boring. Knife scars, burned out buildings, vacant debris strewn lots, and a sink full of cash and syringes provide the seamy details, but there are an equal number of moments waiting, standing around, or talking with bystanders and locals. His pictures are more about the process of policing than the end results, and regardless of the particular time period, their continued strength lies in being open about the daily complexity that the job both offers and requires.

Collector's POV: Given this is a museum show, there are, of course, no posted prices. Freeds's photographs are available from time to time in the secondary markets, with perhaps a handful of prints coming up for sale each year. Recent prices have ranged from roughly $1000 to $5000. The estate of Leonard Freed is represented in New York by Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here).

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

Transit Hub:

• Magnum Photos page (here)
• Features/Reviews: Time LightBox (here)

Police Work: Photographs by Leonard Freed, 1972-1979
Through May 6th

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Cecil Beaton: The New York Years @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 96 photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung against wallpapered and white walls in the entry area and a large gallery space with several interior dividers. The prints are a mix of gelatin silver, bromide and pigment ink prints, taken between 1924 and 1970, although most were taken in the 1930s. No physical dimensions or edition information was available. The exhibit also includes 27 watercolor/ink sketches and drawings, 6 full body costumes, 1 video, and 16 glass cases containing magazines, books, letters, contact sheets, programs, and other related ephemera. A catalog of the exhibition has been published by Skira Rizzoli (here) and is available from the book shop for $65. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While there is certainly plenty of photography on display at the new Cecil Beaton show at the MCNY, I'm not sure it makes sense to call it a photography show in the narrow sense of the definition. Instead of limiting the scope to just his photographs, this flashy exhibit broadens out to tell the story of an artistic Renaissance man, society gadabout, and relentless self-promoter, including watercolor sketches of award-winning costume designs he made for Broadway shows, movies, and the opera, published volumes of his journals, and even his own wallpaper designs. These artistic threads are then woven together with his celebrity and society portraits (seemingly just as often of himself as of famous people) and his fashion work for Vogue, tying it all together in a sumptuous and elegant package.

As a photographer, Beaton was essentially a classicist. While his compositions show borrowings and sprinklings from the avant-garde and Surrealism, he returned again and again to overtly staged interior scenes, heavy on theatricality and dramatic romance. It didn't matter if it was Greta Garbo, Mona Williams, Audrey Hepburn, or Marilyn Monroe, Beaton brought a refined sense of glamour to his portraits and commissions, following in the footsteps of De Meyer and adding a touch of more modern panache and sophistication. While he may not have been a wildly inventive visual innovator with his camera, the aura of his personality clearly became part of his productions, adding sparkle and excitement to mix.

This is a show brimming with visual stimuli, which in a way distracts from its ability to make an intimate or compelling case for the quality of the photographs. But the "going in all different directions" feel of this installation is tremendously effective in painting a picture of Beaton as a frenetic man about town, a multi-talented artist working a dozen projects at once while jamming in a few society portraits between cocktails. It's not so much "Beaton the photographer" as it is "Beaton the force of nature", whirling through New York in a tuxedo, hobnobbing with celebrities and society dames, multiplying the vibrancy of the artistic community with more than just his camera.

Collector's POV: Given this is a museum show, there are, of course, no posted prices. Beaton's photographs are generally available in the secondary markets, with a decent number of prints coming up for sale each year. Recent prices have ranged from $500 to roughly $8000, mostly correlated to the fame of the sitter. Similarly, I'm sure there are Beaton images of now-unknown society figures that can be had for even less.

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


Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here), T Magazine (here), Artnet (here)
• Book Review: NY Times (here)

Cecil Beaton: The New York Years
Through February 20th

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing 112 black and white and color images from 5 different contemporary photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung in the entry and main divided gallery space on the first floor. An introductory room containing 19 vintage works from 12 different photographers/artists begins the exhibit and provides some historical context. The new work was commissioned by the NYC Green Cart Program, the Aperture Foundation, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. Newspaper style brochures of the work of each of the 5 main photographers are available for free in the galleries; these are high qaulity and worth taking. (Installation shots at right.)
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The following photographers are included in the main exhibit, with the number of images on view and details in parentheses:
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LaToya Ruby Frazier (6 archival pigment prints, 10 gelatin silver prints, 2009/2010)

Thomas Holton (19 chromogenic prints, 2009/2010)

Shen Wei (8 archival pigment prints, 2010)

Gabriele Stabile (48 chromogenic prints, 1 journal, 2010)

Will Steacy (21 archival pigment prints, 2010)
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The introductory room contains vintage material from the following photographers, with the number of images on view and dates in parentheses:
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Berenice Abbott (2, 1936/1938)

John Albok (1, 1935)

Byron Company (3, 1899/1900)

Nicolino Calyo (3 watercolors)

Ronald Dubin (1, 1947)

Alta Ruth Hahn (2, 1935)

Susan Lorkidkatz (1, 1978)

Edward Martin (2, 1997/1998)

Roy Perry (1, 1940)

Jacob Riis (1, 1895)

Anne Shanks (1, 1955)

Dan Weiner (1, 1951)
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Comments/Context: On the surface, the idea of commissioning five contemporary photographers to take pictures of the sidewalk produce carts in New York city might seem like a project doomed to obscurity, mostly by its inherent narrowness - how many different ways are there, really, to make images of fruit and vegetable vendors? What is astonishing about this show is just how varied the approaches ended up being, and how compelling these stories actually are, especially when seen together as facets of the same whole.
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Of the five bodies of work on view, I found Will Steacy's photographs to be the most haunting, even though there isn't a single produce cart in any of his images. Steacy took the unorthodox approach of making pictures of the environment in which the green carts reside, picking a single location in the Bronx, and then documenting the food options within a roughly 10 block radius of the cart. The result is a contextual map of the neighborhood, with a parade of dismal fast food, from pizza to burgers, deli sandwiches to Mexican, all cheap and easily accessible, and often discarded on the sidewalk. It's a powerful, sometimes ugly, portrait of the problem the green carts are trying to solve.
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Shen Wei also came at the green cart commission from an unexpected angle. His images are elegant still lifes of the food that came from the carts, laid out in pure light on white tablecloths (almost with a nod to Laura Letinsky). The effect is simple and quiet, where watermelons and bananas become sculptural, often still adorned by stickers or packing boxes.
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Gabriele Stabile and Thomas Holton looked beyond the carts to the customers and vendors themselves. Both got to know the people involved, tracking them to their homes, seeing how their lives have been impacted by the buying and selling of fresh produce. Stabile's images are full of family meals, where shopping and cooking are preludes and processes. Holton spent his time with two Bangladeshi vendors, following their struggles both at the cart and beyond.
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LaToya Ruby Frazier's images are more like traditional street photography than the work of any of the others. They capture the juxtaposition and connection of opposites and the mixing of different kinds of people on the city's sidewalks, catching patrons with a handful of fruit or vendors standing idly waiting for the next sale.
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Taken together, these different approaches create a surprisingly robust and multi-layered picture of the impact of these carts. This exhibit is far more nuanced and engaging than you would ever expect, finding subtleties of influence that spread out from the food to a wide range of lives and communities. The photography is consistently well executed, and the overall message is effective: while the battle may be uphill and the existing environment often hostile to their arrival, these produce carts really do work, in all kinds of less than obvious ways.
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Collector's POV: As this is a museum exhibit, there are no prices for these prints. The five main photographers in this show are represented by the following New York galleries:

• LaToya Ruby Frazier: Higher Pictures (here)
• Thomas Holton: Sasha Wolf Gallery (here)
• Shen Wei: Daniel Cooney Fine Art (here)
• Gabriele Stabile: unknown
• Will Steacy: Michael Mazzeo Gallery (here)

In general, their work has not found its way into the secondary markets much (if at all), so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Review: New Yorker (here)
• LaToya Ruby Frazier artist site (here)
• Thomas Holton artist site (here)
• Shen Wei artist site (here)
• Gabriele Stabile artist site (here)
• Will Steacy artist site (here)

Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program

Through July 10th
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Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029

The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 39 black and white and color images hung in a hallway display area and side viewing room on the second floor. The 20 contemporary prints (from 2002-2005) are framed in white and matted and hung in the hallway space; the 19 vintage images (from 1935-1949) are framed in black and matted and hung in the adjacent room. The exhibit was curated by Sean Corcoran. (Marginal installation shots at right.)

The following photographers are included in the exhibit, with the number of images on view in parentheses:

Berenice Abbott (5)
Diane Cook (10)
Andreas Feininger (7)
Len Jenshel (10)
David Robbins (7)

Comments/Context: I give the Museum of the City of New York quite a bit of credit for working hard to find ways to stay relevant and fresh. Given its historical collection of New York ephemera, it's only real option is to build connections between the past and the present. This small show of waterfront photographs does just that: it juxtaposes older photographs from the permanent collection with contemporary works of the same subject matter, a sort of "before" and "after" comparison of docks and wharfs, a time travel lesson on how these areas have evolved over the years.
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The show begins in the side room, with groups of pictures by Andreas Feininger, Berenice Abbott, and David Robbins from the 1930s and 1940s. This was the boom time for the New York waterfront, with busy docks and piers full of longshoremen, bustling fish markets and boat yards, and big ships being helped along by tugboats; trade via the waterfront was the city's economic engine. Most of the images have a gritty WPA/FSA realism, with a touch of simple Modernist composition.

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The contemporary view of the waterfront is altogether different: for the most part is an abandoned and decaying wasteland, in some places being "revitalized" and redeveloped for new uses. While big containers do enter and pile up at the port facility, there are plenty of lonely piers, ship graveyards and overgrown weeds nearby. The husband and wife team of Cook (in black and white) and Jenshel (in color) have documented this post-industrial environment with an eye for hidden beauty and unlikely romance: bright fireworks in the sky, artfully decomposing ferry posts, dark steel skeletons reflected in the water, and the underside of George Washington bridge lit up at night.

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Taken together, the two groups of works provide an interesting contrast in both content and style, and remind us of a continuing thread in the history of the city.

Collector's POV: The vintage material in this show strays away from the usual images, and dives deeper into the work of both Abbott and Feininger, digging out some lesser known pictures of the waterfront. Prior to the show, I was completely unaware of David Robbins, but his "Along the Waterfront" project from the 1930s seems to merit some further investigation.

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Diane Cook and Len Jenshel are represented by Kathleen Ewing Gallery in Washington D.C. (here) and Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla (here). Their work has not found its way into the secondary markets much (if at all), so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors.

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

Transit Hub:

• Cook/Jenshel artist site (here)
• Review: NY Times Lens blog (here)

The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs
Through November 29th

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029

Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks, Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A large show comprising two sets of prints: 1.) a total of 74 color images, framed in white with no mats, hung in groups (organized by NYC borough) in a large gallery space with a center wall divider, and 2.) a group of 13 extra large scale color works printed on Tyvek, and hung as wavy tapestries in the first two rooms of the exhibition (several are also printed directly on divider screens and one is mounted on the floor.) All of the images were taken between 2006 and 2009. The regular pigment prints come in a variety of sizes, including panoramas; the smallest prints are often hung in pairs, two high. (Marginal installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: I think Joel Meyerowitz' big show of images from New York City's many parks caught me a bit off guard; it wasn't what I was expecting, and as a result, I found myself wandering through the galleries with questions bouncing around in my head. The punch line is that I think this show is less about the art and more about the parks, so my frame of reference was meaningfully out of kilter.

As you enter the exhibit, you are engulfed in a small room with floor to ceiling waterscapes of the Bronx River in various seasons, covering every inch of the space, including the floor (see picture at right, top). While these are photographs, they are printed on non-traditional surfaces and materials, making them feel a bit like trade show decor rather than art. The second room continues with these huge fabric images, now mostly of specimen trees, albeit in a more traditional gallery like setting, adorned with park benches (see picture at right, middle). While this two room prelude certainly succeeds at being both unexpected and eye catching, I was left a little perplexed by its kitchy theatricality.

The main gallery spaces bring you back down into the traditional world of a museum, with normal sized images hung in frames on white walls. The exhibit is organized by borough (Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island), and depicts the various parks in those locales, across the seasons.

One of the first questions that I began to consider when seeing these images was "what is a park anyway"? There are no grand Ansel Adams vistas here, no majestic mountains, broad canyons, or sinuous deserts. These are straightforward, mostly deciduous forests (common across the Northeast), often connected to local waterways, and hemmed in by urban sprawl. Much of the landscape depicted is new growth forest; there are lots of spindly young trees recapturing land that was once cleared, making it "wilderness" once again. These are close-up spaces that have been protected against the thundering herds of humanity that threaten to overrun them; some are open for public use, while others are hidden and left generally alone. They all provide opportunities for residents to get out of the concrete canyons and spend time in "nature", although that word seems to have a relatively broad definition in these pictures; while there are plenty of glimpses of beauty on view here, there are also odd juxtapositions, boring and mundane views, and more than a few remnants of human alterations left behind to rot.

Which brings me to the second question in my head: "what is landscape photography in the 21st century"? Meyerowitz' images of NYC parks are surprisingly lacking in a common view point. In some pictures, there are the astonishing colors and delicate compositions of Eliot Porter, unfortunately veering into the realms of calendar art from time to time. In others, we see the sawed off tree trunks, worn ruts, and ugly remains of Robert Adams, reminding us of how we have carelessly destroyed many of these pristine environments. Still others have the claustrophobic feel of Lee Friedlander's dense thickets, overgrown with vines and underbrush. And a few have the subtle grace of Joel Sternfeld's landscapes, images taken with the knowing eye of a local, who can appreciate the nuances of change across the seasons, even in unspectacular terrain. Where Meyerowitz was in all this was harder to discern; while the good and bad of the subject matter certainly had an impact on the options the photographer had for making the pictures, I had a hard time finding Meyerowitz' own point of view in this exhibit.

As a stood in the galleries, I heard several other visitors proudly exclaim "I've been there!" and I think this is actually the keystone for appreciating this show; for folks who live in New York, this exhibit will end up being less about Joel Meyerowitz and his particular artistic vision for the landscape form, and more about the parks themselves and the various experiences they offer to visitors. Many of us will discover new places to explore, or be reminded of places we haven't been in years and should go back to. In this way, the show is quite satisfying; it succeeds in reintroducing the land to its inhabitants. As memorable art, I'm not sure it rates quite so highly; while these images are undeniably well crafted, I think the only way these pictures stand up to the tests of the canon of great landscape photography is if we redefine what the genre is based on the realities of our current time, placing a greater weight on those pictures which tell the ongoing story of the coexistence of land and man.

Collector's POV: Joel Meyerowitz is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York (here). Meyerowitz' work is routinely available in the secondary markets, dominated by prints made in large editions (75 or even 100) of his 1970s images, particularly his series of porches on Cape Cod. Prices have typically ranged from $1000 to $14000, mostly on the lower end of that range. I have heard several times from different people over the past year or so that there is a movement afoot to "reposition" Meyerowitz, putting more emphasis on his early street work and his relationship to other early adopters of color. How that relates to this current body of landscape work is less clear.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Aperture book (here) and box set (here)
• New York City Department of Parks and Recreation site (here)

Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks, Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz
Through March 21st
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Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029

Urban Abstractions, Photographs from the Collection @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 36 images from 19 different photographers, primarily in black and white (only 3 color prints), hung in a single hallway gallery on the second floor of the museum. Most of the works are displayed in brushed gray metal frames with white mats, against light grey walls. The images were taken between 1910 and 1998, the majority coming from the 1930s. (Blurry installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of images on display in parentheses:

Berenice Abbott (2)
Andreas Feininger (3)
Sigurd Fischer (2)
Samuel Gotscho (5)
Karen Halverson (1)
Stephen Harmon (1)
Andrew Herman (1)
Steve Martin (1)
Benn Mitchell (2)
Arnold Murai (1)
Aaron Rose (2)
Arthur Rothstein (2)
Sherril Schell (5)
Robert Sherwin (1)
Rudolph Simmon (1)
Aaron Siskind (2)
Edward Steichen (2)
Christian Truempling (1)
Unknown (1)

Comments/Context: Since much of the city/industrial genre of our collection could easily be loosely recategorized as "urban abstraction", this was an exhibit that matched our natural affinities quite well. Using the bridges, buildings, night time lights, and city streets as fragments of line and form, the eclectic group of photographers included in this small show have all found ways to play with angles and edges, squares and curves, to create geometric patterns and circular designs, some dense with reflection and refraction.

While the Steichens, Siskinds, and Abbotts are all excellent, the stand out images of this show were those taken by the under appreciated Sherril Schell. Schell made a strong body of Modernist city images in the 1930s, but has somehow not gotten the same level of attention as many of his more well regarded contemporaries. The works on view here show Schell at his best: jagged edges, patterned shadows, and flattened planes of intersecting lines. (Blurry image at right of three Schells hung together.)

Given the venue, this story of urban abstraction is by definition a limited one (only New York), and therefore many spectacular works from other locations have not been included, leaving the show slightly uneven and particularly soft in its later years. That said, there are a handful of terrific images on view, certainly worth a quick detour after visiting Dutch Seen on the first floor.

Collector’s POV: There were quite a few tempting images in this show that would fit well into our collection. I liked the anonymous Brooklyn Bridge, as well as the variant Steichen of the George Washington Bridge and Feininger's car hood reflection. One of the Siskinds on view is already in our collection (here). The Schells were a strong reminder that we certainly would like to add one of his images to our collection at some point. Unfortunately, his work is not much available, and only a few images have come up at auction in the past several years (generally selling in a range between $9000 and $15000).

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

Transit Hub:

• Sherril Schell: Unknown Modernist, 2006 @MCNY (here)

Urban Abstractions: Photographs from the Collection
Through August 2nd

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Dutch Seen: New York Rediscovered @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 102 images, made by 13 different photographers, hung in the first floor entry and a large gallery space, divided into two halves. Except for the images by Rineke Dijkstra, all of the works were taken between 2004 and 2009, many made expressly for this exhibit. (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the show, with the number of works displayed in parentheses:

Morad Bouchakour (33)
Misha de Ridder (5)
Wijnanda Deroo (10)
Rineke Dijkstra (3)
Charlotte Dumas (6)
Hendrik Kerstens (5)
Arno Nollen (1)
Erwin Olaf (6)
Jaap Scheeren (6)
Danielle van Ark (6)
Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin (14)
Hellen van Meene (7)

Comments/Context: When I think about what it might mean to be Dutch in the 21st century, what I come back to time and again is the idea of tolerance. While it is certainly dangerous to generalize about an entire nation and culture, virtually all the Dutch people we know have worldly attitudes of easy going acceptance: of different ways of life, of different ethnic and racial groups, and of glorious eccentricities and quirks in people of all kinds.

This exhibit at the MCNY was organized to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Dutch in New York. Curated by Kathy Ryan of The New York Times Magazine, in conjunction with FOAM, the show consists of the work of a variety of celebrated Dutch contemporary photographers, each of whom was asked to take pictures of today's New York. Given the show's title (Dutch Seen), the central question raised by the exhibit is obvious: what do these Dutch artists see when they look at this city? While the work that was produced for the show is widely diverse, what I think they have seen on the whole is actually a reflection of themselves and their attitudes.

Many of the bodies of work on display focus on the diversity of New York, highlighting the positive qualities of a multi-ethnic world of individuals, each of whom deserves special attention. Both Arno Nollen and Morad Bouchakour have contributed portraits: Nollen favors a consistent mug shot composition, while Bouchakour uses a variety of framing techniques, but in both cases, New York is seen as a kaleidoscope of races and peoples. Hellen van Meene and Rineke Dijkstra also use portraits to capture the essence of New York, but their images dive much deeper into the unique qualities of the individuals portrayed, and use some sense of place (city streets and Coney Island beaches respectively) as a background for their intimate pictures. Erwin Olaf has constructed an elaborate staged environment depicting a turn of the century well to do American black family, making strangely dark and luminous images of shining people and fancy furnishings, asking mysterious questions about race and history in the process. And Wijnanda Deroo has expanded her view of quiet interiors to include a variety of restaurants and eating places in and around New York, from Tavern on the Green to Papaya King, with a heavy mix of down and dirty ethnic joints in between.

Several of the other photographers can be grouped together based on an affinity for the idiosyncracies of the city. Danielle van Ark's images chronicle the strange behaviours found at art openings. Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin focus on the stars of the city, with portraits of celebrities and famous people who add electricity to the mix. Dogs get special attention in Charlotte Dumas' portraits, and Jaap Scheeren's works capture the endearing zaniness of city life, with a stuffed beaver, fur coats, and a plastic fish all making appearances in his staged scenes.

The two outliers in the show are the works by Misha de Ridder and Hendrik Kerstens, but in some sense, they too bring "Dutchness" to their imagery. De Ridder is the only photographer who made landscapes for this show, capturing the wild, scraggly scrub brush and uninviting wetlands that likely awaited the Dutch settlers as they ventured ashore. Kerstens has made huge portraits of his daughter Paula (of perfect ivory skin), drawing on 17th century Dutch painting styles; the connection to New York is the time warp addition of a Yankees hat or a plastic grocery bag to the otherwise saintly images.

Overall, while the concept and theme of the show comes through uniquely in each body of work, it is not altogether surprising that as a whole, the show is quite uneven. My particular favorites were the works by Kerstens, Deroo, Olaf, and Dijkstra, but others might just as well come away with a wholly different set of preferences. In any case, the exhibit is a success in accomplishing its goal: showing us how the Dutch use their own specific cultural framework to see this spectacular city.

Collector's POV: Rineke Dijkstra is by far the most recognized of the artists in this show, and her work is now routinely found in the secondary markets, her large portraits typically fetching between $10000 and $60000 apiece. The work of Erwin Olaf is likely the next most easily found at auction, most often pricing between $2000 and $12000. From there, activity in the secondary markets drops off precipitously, with only a small number of images by any of the rest of the group being sold in the past few years. Almost all of the photographers represented in this exhibit have their own websites and I've linked to a few of them below; this may be the best way to get information about gallery representation for further follow ups.

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

Transit Hub:

• Other reviews: Conscientious (here), The Year in Pictures (here), Brian Rose (here)
• Hendrik Kerstens artist site (here)
• Wijnanda Deroo artist site (here)
• Erwin Olaf artist site (here)
• Rineke Dijkstra - Marian Goodman Gallery site (here)

Dutch Seen: New York Rediscovered

Through September 13th

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Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029

Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): 40 black and white images (with a slight sepia toning/aging) of Mississippi in the main gallery (blue striped wall), with an additional 11 images of New York in an adjacent room (brown striped wall). All from the 1930s. (Blurry installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The quick question "Who was Eudora Welty?" will in most cases elicit an answer (pulled from deep memories from high school) summarizing her success as a prize-winning writer of American novels and short stories set in and describing the rural South, primarily during the Depression. What is perhaps less well known is that Welty began her career as a photographer, as part of the WPA. Her first exhibit was held at the Lugene Opticians' Photographic Galleries (a camera supply store) in 1936, and the images from this original show have been gathered together once again for this exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. In addition to the works from Mississippi, a roomful of pictures that she took during her time in New York are also on view, and these images provide an interesting contrast to the Southern collection.

Even though Welty was a white woman in her twenties taking pictures of the predominantly black towns of Mississippi, her work has the authentic feel of an insider. These are not goopy, sentimental shots of rural workers, nor are they noble testaments to the dignity of labor. They are genuine images of day to day life, full of its dust, heat, humor and simple routine. There are scenes of both farm and city life, of people working in the fields and walking the streets in their Sunday best. While the images are too well composed to be called snapshots, there is an easy-going casualness to the work that is a testament to the comfort she instilled in her subjects.

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When Welty got to the big city, she seems to have at once become a tourist, and was drawn to the eye-catching cliches that everyone is fascinated by when they first see New York (elevated trains, tall buildings, sidewalk life, stairways and stoops). Her work from this period, while still focused primarily on the effects of the Depression, lacks the intimacy of the Mississippi work, and degenerates into (to my eye at least) second rate Abbott knock-offs.

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Collector's POV: Unfortunately, Welty's best work (that from Mississippi) doesn't fit well with our particular collecting plan. 1980's prints of Welty's images from the South (seemingly in editions of 20 or more) have come up at auction from time to time in the past few years, but in small numbers. Prices have been generally reasonable.

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

Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s

Through February 16th

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029

Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson @MCNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 50 black and white gelatin silver prints, of varying sizes, mostly small 5x7 or reverse, with a handful of larger (20x24 or mural sized) prints as well, in a single hallway gallery. A large grid of images (77 total prints) and two glass cases containing artist books are also on display. All of the works are from 1982-1984. (Installation shot at right; image of grid below right.)

Comments/Context: With the growth and prosperity across the nation in recent years, it is often easy to forget what many urban areas went through in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ray Mortenson's photographs take us back to a time in the South Bronx when the streets and neighborhoods resembled an abandoned war zone, with tumble down houses, destruction, and utter collapse the prevailing landscape.

Mortenson made an in depth study of this environment, in an almost anthropological way, taking pictures of both interiors and exteriors, and placing buildings in the context of their surroundings and separating them apart. The images are entirely empty; not a single person is to be found anywhere. What remains are the architectural remnants of broken walls and windows, graffiti, and rotting furniture. It is a bleak world of peeling paint, massive holes, chaos and neglect. There are echoes of Gordon Matta-Clark's work here, minus the conceptual overlay: walls and buildings are slashed and torn, with peep hole views through the decay.

Given the depressing subject matter, it is perhaps surprising to find that these works are consistently engaging and beautiful. Mortenson has used strong contrasts of black/white, light/shadow, and line/texture to bring vitality to these abandoned rooms and buildings. Each view has been carefully composed and crafted, and the small images draw the viewer into an intimate dialogue. The work is thought provoking, in the sense that Mortenson has taken spaces that were defined by negligence and dereliction, and paid respectful attention to them. In doing so, he has exposed some glimpses of simple beauty hidden underneath.

Collector's POV: Prior to this show, we knew nothing about the work of Ray Mortenson. Given this body of work, we have come away impressed; one of these images would easily fit into our collection. Ray Mortenson is represented by Janet Borden (site here).

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

Broken Glass: Photographs of the South Bronx by Ray Mortenson

Through March 3rd

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10029