Alec Soth, The Last Days of W. @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 42 color images, taken between 2000 and 2008, framed in blond wood frames, and displayed in a chopped up maze of five galleries, a hallway, and a reception area. Prints are either chromogenic or archival pigment prints, and come in a range of sizes from 16x20 to 50x40, with several intermediate formats as well. Most are in editions of eight, with a few in smaller (5) or larger (15) edition sizes. Gagosian Gallery does not allow photography in the exhibit rooms, so we have no installation shots for this review.

Comments/Context: Satirizing the now former President Bush has become so widespread, so common, and in some cases, so virulent over the past several years that it has almost become a cliche, the exaggerated jokes and astonishing truths mixing together to make a potent cocktail. Alec Soth has bypassed the easy potshots and obvious put downs in chronicling the last eight years, and has focused his lens on the more subtle and tenuous moments of recent history where the legacy of the Bush administration has spread like a dusty film over the lives of everyday Americans.
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Soth burst onto the photography scene in 2004 with his book, Sleeping by the Mississippi, and has since published several more bodies of work and mixed in a full plate of commissioned projects as a member of Magnum. To our eye, Soth has successfully resisted categorization by pointing his camera at a wide variety of subjects (interiors, exteriors, portraits, still lifes, landscapes etc.) and by working in a style that is neither pure documentary nor overtly personal, but wandering between the two poles based on the demands of any particular picture. Some pictures are a generally straight look at an unexpected moment he has discovered; others have a stronger undercurrent of emotion or irony, suggesting he is drawn to subjects which have more of a specific story to tell.

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The pictures in this show turn on a few common themes: the militarization of our world, a heavier sense of loneliness and exhaustion, the neglect and decay that have become commonplace, and the overall melancholy that has pervaded our society as a result of the changes around us. Home Environment, Billings, MT, 2008, (at right, above) with its toy Humvee winning first prize shows just how far these new behaviors have invaded our daily lives.

Soth also picks up on the remnants of fear, a turning inward and building up of defenses against all comers, including our friends and neighbors. Not only are we not triumphant conquerors, we have become more afraid of each other, closed and tired. His image of an empty room, with the shades drawn (Northfield, Minnesota, 2001 at right, middle) seems entirely emblematic of an entirely too common worldview now among us.

Soth's Avenue Theater, Dallas, TX, 2006 (at right, bottom) was particularly prescient about the coming economic troubles, showing a theater converted into a pawn shop, with plenty of worn out lawn mowers and bicycles arrayed out front, ready for an offer. While I have selected three images that perhaps highlight the unwanted lingering effects of these past years, there are also plenty of moments of wry humor and irony in this show, spotlights placed on situations that contains a mix of emotions. In some ways, it is hard not to think about Robert Frank, William Eggleston, and Joel Sternfeld when walking though this exhibit; there are pieces of each to be found here, from Frank's incisive commentary, to Eggleston's play with color, to Sternfeld's deadpan wit. Soth seems to have channelled them all and added his own perspective to the mix to generate these memorable images.

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Overall, I very much appreciate Soth's ability to wade into the public discourse on a controversial topic and come out having added something to the discussion rather than just piling on. There are many outstanding images here, and each has mysteries to unfold if given the chance. In some ways, this show is an exercise in depression and disillusionment, but I came away surprisingly excited by the potential of art to make us see the world around us with new eyes.

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The artist's website can be found here. His page at Magnum Photos can be found here. There is a also self published, tabloid style newspaper produced in conjunction with the exhibit available.

Collector's POV: The images in this show are priced between $3500 and $13000. Soth's work began to appear in the secondary markets in 2006, and the number of images up for sale has been growing slowly but steadily. Auction prices have ranged from approximately $4000 on the low end to nearly $20000 at the top. This is an artist with a bright future, so perhaps now is the time to add one his images to your collection, before his work vaults into the stratosphere.

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

Alec Soth, The Last Days of W.
Through March 7

Gagosian Gallery

980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Frank Gohlke and Joel Sternfeld @Queens College, CUNY

JTF (just the facts): A total of 58 images, taken in 2003 and 2004, framed in blond frames, hung throughout the 3 floors and basement of Hortense Powdermaker Hall (the main classroom building at Queens College). Images are printed in two different sizes: large (approximately 4x5 feet) and small (approximately 8x10 inches). The total group seems to be divided generally equally between the two artists. Gohlke's works are gelatin silver prints; Sternfeld's are C-prints. The entire exhibit was commissioned by the college. (Various installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: With the kids and their mother packed off for an afternoon at the grandparent's house, I found myself with a few free hours this weekend and decided to head down to Queens to see the Gohlke/Sternfeld show at Queens College. After parking my car and finding my way through campus to Powdermaker Hall, I was ready to see the combined effort of these two great photographers, part of which I had already seen at the Gohlke show at Howard Greenberg last summer (original review here).

I pulled one of the side doors open and wandered into the building, hoping to find a sign or some other pointer to where the images were hung. No such luck. The building was completely and entirely empty, not a single person anywhere (a few classrooms were inhabited but no random people hanging out), the linoleum echoing as I clicked down the hallways. Powdermaker Hall is roughly shaped like a fork, with three tines, and I finally found my way to the center where I discovered a lone security guard. Along the way, I had spied a couple of photographs, hung in puzzling locations, often by themselves, and indeed these were part of the exhibition. I told the guard that I was here to see the photography show and inquired about where the images were, if there was a map or other literature etc. She looked at me like I had just asked her when the next shuttle to the moon was leaving. Finally she just laughed and said that the pictures were all over the building and that I should start up on the third floor and work my way down.

So I trudged up the stairwell and worked my way down to the end of one long hall to what I thought seemed like a good place to start. Again, there were no other people there. It was completely deserted, the white press board walls lit with buzzing fluorescent lights (eerie installation shot at right), the epitome of soul sapping institutional architecture. I felt like I had a stepped into a Haruki Murakami novel; who knew when some odd person might arrive and lead me to another dimension.

So to be clear, this is not an "exhibition" in the normal sense of the word. The works are spread all over this massive classroom building, sometimes alone, often in pairs or groups, but without any pattern to their display. You often need to walk a good distance (perhaps a minute or two of steady walking) between pictures. Seeing the entire show is like going on a scavenger hunt. I found 56 of the 58 works that are supposedly in the show; where the other two are remains a mystery, as I think I did a pretty systematic search. Probably three quarters of the wall labels have been removed by vandals (a few business cards have been stuck in as replacements), so while you can tell who made the images (black and white = Gohlke, color = Sternfeld), there often isn't any other information available. The discouraging state of this exhibit is exemplified by the image at right: an amazing Gohlke photograph, with the glass broken and the wall label gone.

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So far I have spent the entire body of this review talking about the environment and not the art, and unfortunately, the staging of these works is so distracting that it is hard to get any complete view of the commission. With so much space between the works, the interrelationships and patterns are hard to discern (was this Sternfeld like a Gohlke I saw up on the third floor? What does this large Sternfeld have to do with the small ones in the basement? etc.). I truly wonder what any student, blowing by on the way to class, can gather from these photographs given the way they are installed.

That said, Gohlke has focused his camera primarily on single family homes and snippets of nature, finding patterns in fences and ironwork, door frames and brick. His images are angled, standing outside, looking in at an evolving neighborhood. The front door portraits that have been enlarged to the big print size are striking, crisp in detail and dense with information.

Sternfeld's images are much more interested in the cultural melting pot that is Queens. All of his works are straight, frontal shots, accenting bold colors, multilingual signage and unusual building styles, often populated with a diverse set of locals staring directly into the lens. Koreans, Bolivians, Muslims and a variety of other ethnicities, nationalities, and religions are represented and mashed together, often with his signature subtle hint of irony hiding underneath. Again, the large prints hold their own better in this environment. (Large print near the elevators at right.)

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Together, the works of Gohlke and Sternfeld tell a surprisingly rich and successful picture of Queens. If these works were hung in a museum, they would likely expose many more contrasts than they do here in these empty halls.
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Frank Gohlke's artist site is here. He is represented by Howard Greeenberg Gallery (here).

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Joel Sternfeld is represented by Luhring Augustine (here).

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Collector's POV: While I was bit slow in coming to understand and appreciate these Gohlke images, evidenced by my struggles with the Greenberg show, given some time and a second look, I think many of the images of homes and their barriers are quite strong. This was my first look at the Sternfeld body of work, and I believe there are a handful of excellent pictures here as well, especially if printed in the large format, where the complexities of the color relationships are more apparent. While the work in this show merits at least two stars, the Where's Waldo installation makes this a show for only the most devoted fans.

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

Frank Gohlke and Joel Sternfeld

(permanent commission)

Queens College, CUNY

65-30 Kissena Boulevard

Flushing, NY 11367

Contradictions in Black and White @Hasted Hunt

JTF (just the facts): A group show, displaying a total of 25 works (including one triptych and one grid of 25 pictures), representing 10 different artists, exhibited throughout the gallery. (Imperfect installation shots at right.)

The following photographers are included (with the number of works in parentheses):

Margaret Bourke-White (4)

Harry Callahan (2)

Michael Flomen (3)

Adam Fuss (1)

Nathan Harger (3)

Idris Khan (1)

Vera Lutter (2)

Raymond K. Metzker (6)

Irving Penn (1)
Horacio Salinas (2)

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Comments/Context: While the dominance of color as the primary mode of expression for current contemporary photography is unchallenged, there is something to be said for reacquainting ourselves with the pleasures of black and white. Perhaps there is an unconscious desire to see something different from show after show of relentless saturated colors, or maybe it is simply a reflection of a more somber mood imposed by the current economic situation. In any case, the current show on view at Hasted Hunt gathers together a well selected mix of vintage gems and emerging artists, and creates some thoughtful juxtapositions along the way.

The challenge for contemporary artists working in black and white is straightforward: create images that don't look like they were made in the 1930s, or 1950s, or 1970s - use the medium to show us something different, not just a knock-off of an idea that was done well decades earlier. This is actually harder than it sounds, as the tonal qualities of black and white lend themselves to contrasts of line, form, and pattern, subjects that have been explored deeply by a wide variety of artists. All of the pictures in this show (regardless of time period) lean toward abstraction, even if their subject matter is recognizable; there are no portraits or landscapes or documentary images.

In one sense, you can see this show as a battle: on one side stand Bourke-White, Callahan, Metzker, and Penn, titans of the medium, represented by solid works that seem to throw down the gauntlet to the younger generation and offer them the challenge to match their greatness. On the other side stand a new generation of artists happily employing black and white in new ways: Fuss, Lutter, Flomen and Khan, with the newcomers Harger and Salinas joining the fight.

While I would have never predicted that the contemporary work would stand up to the test of the masters, the battle is closer to a draw than you might expect. There are great works by all four of the older generation in this show, particularly Metzker; both his composite and double frame images are superlative. Both Fuss and Lutter show new directions with their photograms (although the Lutters are not her best), and Flomen and Khan offer ethereal, indeterminate abstractions that are wholly different from the historical work, without treading into the realm of camera club cheesy. Harger and Salinas show that old ideas (wires, cranes, still life) can indeed be reworked in fresh ways. While the show is a bit uneven across the board, it is a successful reminder that black and white is still relevant.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show run the gamut in terms of price, ranging from $2000 to $75000. For our collection, one of the Metzkers would be our first pick, closely followed by one of the Bourke-Whites. We actually own a print of one of the Callahans (here).

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

Contradictions in Black and White

Through February 28

Hasted Hunt Gallery

529 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

More on this show at Fugitive Vision here.

Shinichi Maruyama, Kusho @Silverstein

JTF (just the facts): 10 large scale (most are 60x40 or reverse) pigment prints, framed in white and arrayed in the front gallery. All of the images are from 2006, in editions of 10.

Comments/Context: Underlying the history of photography is the never ending march of new technology, with recent advances enabling artists to make pictures in ways that had been heretofore impossible. Following in the footsteps of stop motion scientist Harold Edgerton, Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama uses high tech strobe lights to make exposures in one 7500th of a second.

Maruyama uses these new tools to make expressive images of colliding waves of black ink and water, caught in mid air against white backgrounds. His pictures capture the gestural qualities of the drips, splashes, washes and sprays, in the split second before they merge into a muddy puddle. The resulting abstract swirls are clearly reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy and ink drawing, but with an undertone of energetic chaos.

Collector's POV: The images in this small show are priced between $7500 and $15000, mostly based on size it seems (the one that reminds me of the old Lucent logo being the highest priced). In walking through the gallery, I thought of the watery photograms of Susan Derges and Adam Fuss, but Maruyama's works are wholly different, with a strong Japanese aesthetic of simplicity, imperfection and elegance. This is a solid first New York showing.

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

Shinichi Maruyama, Kusho

Through February 21

Silverstein Photography

535 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10011

Book: Osamu Kanemura, My Name is Shockhammer

JTF (just the facts): A large format, tabloid style booklet, published by Osiris in 2007. Produced in conjunction with an exhibit at the Port Gallery in Osaka. 16 pages, with 15 black and white images. (Poor cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: If the name Osamu Kanemura is familiar to collectors in the United States, it is likely due to his inclusion in the New Photo exhibit (number 12) at the MoMA in 1996. We actually became aware of Kanemura much later, with the introduction of his body of work known as Spider's Strategy several years ago (we saw the exhibition at Cohen Amador and bought the book for our library). This thin pamphlet brings us up to speed with what he has been working on lately, and it seems to be a direct extension and continuation of the ideas that underlay Spider's Strategy.

The most obvious and common stereotype about Tokyo is that it is an overcrowded, chaotic mess. Kanemura has pointed his camera at this complexity and selected densely fragmented slices of the environment around him. His images recall some of Lee Friedlander's work, packed with information and overlapping patterns, reduced to a two dimensional cluster of interlaced electric wires, buildings, bicycles, and shop billboards. The pictures are often bewildering in their richness, provoking the same wide eyed visual overload of the new visitor to the city.

While there are often random pedestrians in his images, Kanemura's work doesn't seem to be about any particular narrative, but about the complexities of this built environment and the social relationships that have emerged out of the closeness. The images are dark, and often claustrophobic, with nets of wires, street signs, and blinking lights falling down from the nearly obliterated sky. While there are only a small number of works in this booklet, his unique view of the city comes through hauntingly.

Collector's POV: Truth be told, we have been thinking about adding a Kanemura to our collection since we saw the original Spider's Strategy show, and every time we visit Cohen Amador (Kanemura's gallery in New York, site here), we are reminded of just how much we would like to add one of his images to our city scene genre. While the retail prices are reasonable (I believe they are around $3000 each, in editions of 5), we just haven't gotten focused enough on any single image to get to the finish line. There is no secondary market for his work at the moment. So going forward, we'll need to do some more legwork and look at some more images to find a representative picture that jumps out at us, full of crazy intersecting wires.

Book: Hiroh Kikai, Asakusa Portraits

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2008 by ICP and Steidl. 264 pages, with 231 full page black and white images, essays by Christopher Phillips, Hiromichi Hosoma, and Hiroh Kikai, and an interview with the artist by Noriko Fuku. (Cover image at right.)

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Comments/Context: Japanese photographer Hiroh Kikai has been making unassuming portraits of the patrons of the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa for nearly thirty years. We first saw Kikai's work in the Heavy Light group show of Japanese photography at the ICP last year (review here) and then followed up with a visit to a small show of his Tokyo city scenes at Yancey Richardson (review here). This book is a thick catalogue of the Asakusa portraits, with enough girth to give you a full measure of this project.

The set up of the each of the portraits is virtually identical: a three quarter black and white shot, against the vermilion walls of the temple, in natural light, generally unposed and informal. These are comfortable pictures, respectful and attentive to the sitters, patient and sometimes poignant. (A maintenance man for commercial dishwashers, 2002, at right.)

Kikai comes at his art from the humanist perspective, valuing the individuality of his subjects and trying to quietly uncover their singular stories, essential traits, and personalities. He has said that he was initially influenced by the work of Diane Arbus, and some of Arbus' willingness to meet her subjects on their own terms can be found in Kikai's images as well. (A performer of Butoh dance, 2001, at right below.)

Kikai has also been a writer in his career, and the titles to his images read like sparse poetry. I've selected a group of image titles from the book and repeated them below. Read them slowly, with a pause after each one:

An old man wearing woolen long johns
A man who asked me if I'd buy a watch
A woman who said she bought lottery tickets
A man who came a long way to eat eel
A woman who often suffers from heartburn
A maker of traditional Japanese confectionery
A woman who said her eyes were dry
A man wearing four watches

A man playing a tune he composed himself

A man who said he'd just had a drunken quarrel

A retired craftsman who said that when he goes out he blackens his hair with indelible ink

A driver who can't work as he once caused a traffic accident

An old man using a wooden sword as a walking stick

A man who'd had a dream at daybreak, for the first time in ages

A man raising tropical fish

An old man who was speaking to a doll while he was walking

A man sweating under layers of women's clothing

A man who asked if I knew Humphrey Bogart

A factory worker who said that dancing in amateur variety halls was what gave his life meaning

A man who dresses his cat in lace

A man who said he used to be a carpenter, but not a good one

A man in a coat he said was made from the pelts of twenty-eight raccoons

A man who used to act in crowd scenes in samurai movies

A polite young man who powders his hands

A man with a python skin wallet

A woman who told me her son was the number one barber in Japan

There are, of course, hundreds more in the book, but I think the list above gives you a feel for his approach. What is perhaps most surprising is that while all of the people in the pictures are Japanese, the portraits seem to transcend their nationality or ethnicity; they are simply portraits of people, and insightful and memorable ones at that. Taken as a whole, this body of work is a tremendous success, and one that should help to bring his artistic accomplishments out of relative obscurity.

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Collector's POV: Kikai is represented in New York by Yancey Richardson (here), in a relatively new relationship I believe. His work is to date unavailable in the secondary markets.

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This book was selected as one of the Best Books of 2008 by Conscientious (here).

Book: Malick Sidibé, Photographs

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2003 by Steidl and the Hasselblad Center, in conjunction with the artist's receipt of the 2003 Hasselblad Award. 108 pages, including 65 black and white plates. Essays by Gunilla Knape and Manthia Diawara, with a conversation with Sidibé recorded by Andre Magnin. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Malian photographer Malick Sidibé has been on our list of artists to get better acquainted with for quite a while now. We have seen a few of his captivating portraits in group shows or at auction previews over the years, but until now, we hadn't spent the time to look carefully at the entire body of his work. This monograph is an excellent first resource primer on Sidibé for those who want to educate themselves about this important African photographer.

Sidibé's best pictures come from the 1960s and 1970s, when he made staged studio portraits and looser documentary shots of the youth culture of Bamako. In these post-colonial years, traditional Malian culture was being challenged by the modernizing influences of the West. So while Sidibé did make many traditional portraits of people in African dress, with elaborate hairstyles and symbolic poses, his images of energetic young people, full of freedom and enthusiasm, have the most interesting stories to tell. (Young man with bell bottoms, bag, and watch, 1977 at right.)

There is an amazing purity and innocence in these pictures. There are kids dressed in their best funky James Brown suits, holding record albums, strutting and showing off. There are crazy sunglasses, big watches, and shiny shoes. There are motorcycles and scooters brought into the studio, for posing and looking cool. Sidibé let each of his subjects create their own narrative with his many props and objects, and what emerged were pictures full of style and attitude and rock and roll infused pride. One of the things I find most intriguing about these portraits is Sidibé's use of clashing patterns, background and floor drops with bold stripes, checks, and polka dots, mixed together with the patterns in his subjects' clothing. It makes for some high octane visual stimulation. (The whole family on a motorcycle, 1962, at right.)

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It is clear that there were some powerful culture and generational conflicts and shifts going on during these times, and the young people were at the center of the revolt. Sidibé also made some memorable pictures of kids at parties and dance clubs (called grins), showing off their best moves and imitating their favorite stars. These too have a sense of unabashed happiness; it's hard not to smile when you see them.

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In recent years, Sidibé has been busy on the awards circuit, picking up the 2003 Hasselblad Award, the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2007 Venice Bienniale, and most recently, the 2008 ICP Infinity Award, also for lifetime achievement. All this from an artist who was virtually unknown outside Africa a decade or two ago.

Collector's POV: If you are a portrait collector, Sidibé needs to be in your collection. In our opinion, his are images that you will stand the test of time well, without becoming tired.

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Virtually all of Sidibé's photographs that can be found in the secondary market are later prints, made in the late 1990s or early 2000s. These images have been selling in the $2000 to $5000 range at auction, but there haven't been many in the past five years, so it's hard to draw much of a pattern from so few data points.

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Sidibé is represented in New York by Jack Shainman Gallery, site here. There was a 2005 solo show there, complete with images surrounded by elaborately painted glass frames.

One Collector’s View of the Current Photography Market

Over the past few weeks, we have watched with much trepidation as the signs of imminent gallery failures have started to become more obvious, and the gawkers and nay sayers have begun the death watch with not so hidden glee. As long term collectors, we view ourselves as part of the photography world, tied to the rise and fall of the “industry” just as much as the gallery owners, private dealers, museum curators, and even the artists themselves. As we watch with dismay as our own budget shrinks and talk to gallery owners who are increasingly worried about the burden of their fixed overhead, how we together get out of this tightening trap becomes a more complicated puzzle for everyone up and down the food chain.

As we look ahead to collecting in 2009, we are starting to develop an approach to pursuing our passion in the midst of this collapse. Here are a few things that we are thinking and planning:

1.) There will be less great material at auction this year and prices will be meaningfully softer across the board.

Since we have been consignors to auctions from time to time in the past, we know that we would be very unlikely to consign our best pieces to auction in this environment, unless we were in such dire straits that we needed to liquidate the collection to raise cash quickly. As such, we don’t expect that we will see superlative pieces coming out of the woodwork much this year, even though our friends in the auction houses will surely be beating the bushes aggressively in search of great work (perhaps they will surprise us). We expect the catalogues to be quite a bit thinner, somewhat more selective (less chaff), and the estimates to be much more realistic (read lower).

As virtually all collectors have tightened their belts, there will be less total volume of buyers, and those buyers will have smaller comfort windows for any given photograph they might be pursuing. As a result, prices will likely be softer, as buyers will be less willing to fight those last few bids for pieces they’re interested in, especially for later prints in larger editions and lesser known artists. We’re going to do our best to resist the temptation to look for bargains, as we have learned the hard way that this approach often leads to owning pictures that lose the battle for wall space and find themselves in the print storage boxes. This is a perfect segue to the next point.

2.) There will be two primary strategies that will be favored by most collectors: flight to quality and focus on emerging artists.

No collectors that we know have any intention of completely stopping their collecting activities during these tougher economic times if they can help it. But everyone is dealing with increased scrutiny of each and every purchase. As such, we think there are two obvious paths forward: raise the quality bar much higher and only purchase those perfect gems that fit into the core of your collecting plan, or abandon higher end work altogether (for the moment) and focus your energy and budget on smaller works and emerging artists that are significantly more affordable, thereby stretching your limited dollars further. In either case, the thrill of the chase and the joy of looking at the images are still there, but the overall outlay is much lower. I can imagine we might end up doing a little of both.

3.) We’re going to buy more photo books.

We are clearly going to do some substitution this year, buying more books and fewer prints. Great photography books are a low cost way to enjoy a wide variety of artists and styles, without the spending required for a fine print. And there are literally hundreds of photographers who we would enjoy having in our library who would not meet the requirements of being in our print collection. It’s a little like living vicariously, but given the high quality of most photography books these days, it’s still living pretty well.

4.) Gallery owners and artists/estates will be in need of our support.

Nearly every gallery owner we have talked with in the past month is somewhere on the spectrum from unsettled and nervous to reeling and desperate. The fixed costs of the space, the exhibitions, the fairs, and the staff aren’t going away, but the sales have slowed to a trickle or a complete halt, often depending on what kind of artists and inventory they are carrying. Some galleries are lucky enough to have one or more bread and butter artists or estates that pay the rent month in and month out, so they can experiment with other artists on the margin. Others are not so fortunate.

Some of these gallery owners are resorting to the self inflicted wounds of deep discounting, after spending years establishing baseline prices for their artists. On one hand this makes sense, given a new pricing reality and the knowledge that the sale won't happen unless the price is meaningfully lower. On the other hand, offering a collector a print for half of what you have spent the past five years telling him it is worth is a recipe for permanently broken trust. This is "a rock and a hard place" choice.

While this may sound counterintuitive, we think that now is the time to cement our relationships with the handful of galleries, dealers and artists that we really value on a going forward basis. These are the people we like, who have paid attention to us and treated us fairly over the years, and who offer the work that we find most appealing. In these tough times, we are going to make a more conscious effort to go to their shows, and to spend time looking at the work from the drawers and back rooms. The shows are free and the gallery staff has more time to spend sharing their knowledge with us. It’s a good time to ramp up our photography education.

And from time to time, we plan to dig into our jeans and buy something, both because we love it for our collection, but also because we want these folks to survive and thrive. Our dollars not only support the gallery, but trickle down to the living artist or estate, who sorely need the money in either case. This buying is not some wild consumerist delusion; it is just the opposite. It is a conscious and difficult choice to support the groups we value when it isn’t obvious, just like our support for our favorite non-profits and charities in these challenging times means even more to them than usual.

So in our view, we’re clearly heading into a tough stretch for the world of photography and we can expect more bad news in the days to come. But instead of watching the train wreck from the sidelines, we plan to roll up our sleeves and get involved in the solutions to the best of our abilities. Yes, it will be restrained, measured, careful, and in numerous ways, much less than before. But it is still our passion, and we don’t plan on giving up that passion any time soon.

Auction: 100 Fine Photographs, February 19 @Swann

Swann Galleries begins its 2009 season with a February sale of photographs, offering its signature eclectic mix of daguerreotypes and 19th century images, vintage works, and later prints from a wide variety of artists and time periods. (Catalogue cover at right.)

Here are the statistics for the auction:

Total Lots: 117

Total Low Estimate: $556600 (plus one "refer to department")
Total High Estimate: $816400 (plus one "refer to department")

Total Low Lots (high estimate below $10000): 99

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $543400

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 17
Total Mid Estimate: $213000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 1 (plus one "refer to department")
Total High Estimate: $60000 (plus one "refer to department")

While there are several solid pictures in this sale (a nice vintage Minor White, a vintage Callahan weed, and an 1890s albumen panorama of Hong Kong among others), there aren't many that would fit well with our particular collection. The best match would be Lot 36, Poughkeepsie Bridge, 1929, by Ralph Steiner, to go with some of our other bridge pictures. (Image at right.)

As the markets began to deflate last year, Swann held its own quite well, perhaps due to an increasingly good match between its typically lower end material and many collectors' readjusted budgets. While the material here isn't uniformly strong, it will still be intriguing to see how this sale performs, particularly with regard to realized prices versus estimates, as a proxy for the current mood of the market.

100 Fine Photographs
February 12th

Swann Galleries

104 East 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

Nobuyoshi Araki @Kern

JTF (just the facts): A total of 305 black and white prints from three different projects, displayed in the main gallery space. Ginza (1963-1972) is comprised of 212 prints, each 14x17 or reverse, pinned directly to the wall, shown in three large grids. Subway (1963-1972) includes 80 prints, each 8x10, pinned behind plexiglass but not framed, arrayed in small series and groups along one wall. Untitled (1970) is made up of 13 small prints (5 1/2x4 1/2), framed in brown and lined up on an interior wall. (Installation shots at right: Ginza, top, Subway, middle, Untitled, bottom.)

Comments/Context: Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has been making provocative and challenging pictures for nearly 40 years. His erotic nudes and bondage photographs, along with his sensual painted flowers, have often been called shocking and outrageous, sometimes even pornographic. He is one of the most productive and prolific photographers of all time, producing literally hundreds of books of his tantalizing work.

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The exhibit of Araki's work currently on view at Anton Kern goes back to the beginning of his career and examines some of his first projects from the 1960s and 1970s, before he fully embraced his mature style. Here we find him shooting roll after roll on the streets and in the subways, testing framing techniques and camera angles. The Ginza series, taken on the streets of the fashionable shopping district, are mostly contrasty head shots and tight close ups, dark and indirect. He captures his subjects in both traditional and Western dress, with a sense of style that is reminiscent of William Klein. There are plenty of shadows, but these streets are not gritty, they are glamorous. And while not every shot is a winner on its own, as a group, the images show an evolving working style and energetic eye, telling a well rounded story of this particular place and its people.

In the Subway pictures, Araki follows in the footsteps of Walker Evans, shooting multiple frames of bored travelers and commuting salary men riding the crowded trains. These pictures have more narrative to them, displayed in groups of several images, allowing the viewer to watch a scene unfold over a short time window. The Untitled images show us the beginnings of Araki's more erotic vision. In these pictures, the same thin framed woman, with an oval face and big round eyes reminiscent of an anime character, is photographed in various nude poses, from demure to direct.

This exhibit broke many of my preconceived notions and pigeon holes for Araki's work and made a compelling argument that his talents are much broader than generally perceived. Even if you are not a fan of Araki's more recognizable images, this is a well constructed show that brings forth some thought provoking historical precedents for his later work.

The artist's website (in Japanese) can be found here.

Collector's POV: The Ginza images in the show are contemporary prints, retailing for $4400 each. The Subway series images are also contemporary prints and are $2800 each, sold individually and/or in groups of up to 8. The Untitled images are unique prints, $3300 each. Given that Araki has been so prolific, his work is readily available in a variety of secondary markets. At auction, his larger works are generally selling for under $10000, most for less than $5000. We have even seen Araki's one off Polaroids of nudes and flowers on EBay, going for under $500. Many of his books have become collector's items as well, fetching $1000 and up for the rarer titles. For our particular collection, we have been tempted to put together a small grid of Araki's painted flowers, especially those in wild colors.

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

Araki

Through February 7

Anton Kern Gallery

532 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

More Araki at Modern Art Obsession here.

Candida Höfer, Philadelphia @Sonnabend

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 large scale color C-prints, framed in blond wood frames with no matting, arrayed in the entry and two rooms in the rear of the gallery. Images range in size from roughly 60x64 to nearly 70x100. All of the negatives are from 2007. (Installation shots with significant glare at right and below.)

Comments/Context: German photographer Candida Höfer has spent the better part of the past 30 years making huge deadpan images of public architectural spaces around the world. She has captured museums, hotels, banks, libraries, and palaces of all kinds, always devoid of people and often lit with pure daylight. Her current show at Sonnabend displays a group of new pictures taken in some of Philadelphia's most ornate Federal buildings.

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Höfer is, of course, one of the group of highly successful students of the Bechers at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art, and her work shares their clinical approach to picture making. The images are all taken from a rigid square frontal position, the subject matter has variation within an overall sameness, and the prints are made with a high degree of technical mastery.

Despite all of the over the top ornamental flourishes found in these rooms, the interiors are chillingly vast and empty, like tombs that have recently been unearthed and opened to anthropologists. While there are frequently subtle effects resulting from the placement of the light, for the most part, the images are dry and emotionless, in contrast to the clear hopes for grandeur and awe of the builders.

We have often seen Höfer's work in the pages of glossy design magazines, her images hung on the walls of flashy apartments and newly redecorated lofts. It seems they often serve as stand ins for a dreamed about library or ballroom, a symbol of decorative luxury just out of reach. For us, there seems to be something absent, a missing connection that would normally draw us back to the images again and again. While Höfer has pointed her camera at a vast array of amazing places, there doesn't seem to be anything new, fresh or memorable going on, and over time, the images become surprisingly interchangeable. And in a mind bending twist, perhaps that is just the point.

Collector's POV: Candida Höfer's work is readily available in the secondary market, in a range of sizes from small to gigantic. The pictures in this show are priced between 40000 and 50000 Euros. At auction, the smaller pieces can be found well under $10000 (often in editions of up to 100), while the larger works (perhaps more representative of what she's trying to do and printed in much smaller editions, usually 6) seem to range between $20000 and $50000, give or take a few outliers on the high side.

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

Candida Höfer, Philadelphia

Through February 14

Sonnabend Gallery (artnet page here)

536 West 22nd Street

New York, NY 10011

More Chinese Photography Info

Here's a solid group of recommendations for further study of contemporary Chinese photography I received from an expert on recent Chinese art:

Exhibition catalogues
Between Past and Present: New Photography and Video from China (2004 ICP, site here)
Foto Fest China 2008 (site here)
China under Construction (Amazon link here)
Zooming into Focus (UCLA Asia Institute 2004, site here)

Gallery
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (site here)
Called "the most important place for photography in China". I can't vouch for that, but it is surely a strong endorsement nonetheless. There is a show of Ai Weiwei's photographs from New York in the 1980s and 1990s on display now.

Book publisher

Timezone 8 (site here)

Luisa Lambri, Photographs @Luhring Augustine

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 black and white Laserchrome prints, framed in white and minimally displayed in the entry, main gallery, and one back room. The images are of three different sizes (29x25, 30x36, and 48x37) and are available in editions of 5. All of the negatives are from 2008. (Marginal installation shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Italian photographer Luisa Lambri makes architectural images in the buildings constructed by the masters of modernity, and instead of documenting the triumphant vision and bold details that we have seen so many times before, she interprets the spaces in more personal ways and finds introspective moments of meditative quiet.

This is perhaps the subtlest show of photography I have seen in quite a while. On one wall, a grid of six images taken in the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea in Galicia, Spain (built by renowned Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza) are displayed, spread widely on a large blank wall. At first glance, these images appear identical, and are vaguely reminiscent of stairwells photographed by Tina Modotti and Charles Sheeler. As you contemplate these images, minute variations in the light in the images present themselves as slight tonal gradations and color shifts, so small as to be nearly imperceptible. The other images in the exhibit are also grouped to highlight these ethereal permutations.

These solemn and quiet abstractions grew on me over time and I started to appreciate a bit more their tender intimacy. I came around to seeing these images as sensory exercises in light, less about realism and more about minimalism. If however you are wound tight and moving quickly when you see this show, you will have little patience for these delicacies and will likely leave mystified.

Collector's POV: These images will, of course, appeal to the all white, open and airy, minimalist crowd. The images in the show are priced at $9000, $10000, and $12000 based on size. Lambri's work has been virtually absent from the secondary markets for photography, so retail is likely your only avenue for acquiring her work in the short term.

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

Luisa Lambri, Photographs
Through February 7

Luhring Augustine
531 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Book: Wang Qingsong

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2006 by Albion and Hatje Cantz, in conjunction with an exhibit at Albion in London. 136 pages, with an essay by Zoe Butt. Includes large plate images, as well as a comprehensive list of works as thumbnails (with sizes and editions). (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: To Western eyes, the high points to the storyline of China's transformation in the past few decades have become predictably well known: unprecedented and explosive economic growth, staggering new construction projects and radical urban change, an increased openness to and embracing of Western culture, and a much larger and more powerful position on the world stage. It is not surprising that amidst these changes, and in concert with a gradual relaxation of central censorship, artists have begun to examine the changes going on all around them and to ask hard questions about how China is being recast.

Wang Qingsong is a contemporary photographer who uses sarcasm, irony, satire and humor to expose some of the undesired consequences and unintended effects of the country's modernization on the collective psyche of the population. Beginning in 1997, Wang has made theatrical images that have centered on the quiet war between traditional Chinese culture and the encroaching Western lifestyle. His early work was dubbed "Gaudy Art", for its garish colors and not-so-subtle surrealistic kitsch. His 1998 work, Prisoner, shows Wang trapped inside prison bars made of Coke cans; Thinker, also from 1998, has him seated on a lotus leaf in Buddhist prayer, with a huge McDonald's logo carved in his chest; Requesting Buddha no. 1, 1999, (at right) has the Buddha's many arms filled with a variety of consumer products. These and other images all parody the materialism of the West and how it has invaded the minds of the Chinese people. Instead of worshiping self denial, fulfilling every desire via consumerism is the new norm.

Unlike the heroic and patriotic battle scenes from propaganda films, Wang's series of images entitled Another Battle highlights the clash going on between the traditional and modern cultures, and shows Wang as a defeated and bloodied commander, lost among the razor wire decorated with soda cans. (Another Battle no.8, 2001 at right.) Other images show the battlefield complete with McDonald's trash cans and road signs. These images have been elaborately staged, and have the feel of film stills.

Wang's more recent output has evolved into elaborate and monumental tableaux, with large numbers of actors and painstaking stage sets, in the end becoming massive, scroll-like photographs, some more than 20 feet wide. While in approach there may be valid comparisons to Gregory Crewdson or Jeff Wall, Wang's images are firmly rooted in typical and traditional Chinese artistic forms and metaphors and make no pretense of their careful manipulation. The image at right, Romantique, 2003, shows both a small detailed section on the top, with a thumbnail version of the entire work below (impossible to see I realize). Here the world is a confusing, fabricated mixture of Chinese and Western allusions and symbols, full of staged snippets from famous paintings by a wide range of recognized masters, from Botticelli and Raphael to Manet and Matisse.

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Wang's exaggerated work brings home many of the subtler challenges posed to China by such rapid modernization. As traditions are exchanged for Western consumerism, his work points to continuing social questions about what lies ahead for this giant nation. This monograph is almost like a catalog raisonne, as it has a complete set of all Wang's images and other detailed print/negative information. As such, it is an excellent reference resource on this innovative Chinese photographer.

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Wang Qingsong's artist website can be found here.

Collector's POV: Wang Qingsong's work has become increasingly available in the secondary market in the past few years. Most of the images come in at least two sizes, and are in editions of 6, 10 or 20. Smaller single images have been priced starting at around $10000, moving upward toward $100000. Only a few of the large tableaux have come to market, and all have sold in the six figure range.

Book: Zhang Huan, Altered States

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2007 by Edizioni Charta and the Asia Society, in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at the Asia Society. 180 pages, with essays by Melissa Chiu, Kong Bu, Eleanor Heartney, and Zhang Huan. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: While Zhang Huan's images can routinely be found in photography auctions around the world today, to call him a photographer would be to grossly misunderstand his art. His photographs are merely documents of his performance art - sometimes further labeled as "body art" or "endurance art", as many of his performances involve testing the limits of his body and mind. This book provides a retrospective look at all of his performances and installations, going back to 1993. Each and every performance is an opportunity to watch from the sidelines as Zhang explores the depths of his own history and personality or reacts to his environment.

Not surprisingly, some of Zhang's performances work better as photographs than others. He has sat covered in flies in a public toilet; he has suspended himself in midair and had some of his blood drained; he has lain naked on blocks of ice; he has worn suits of bone and meat. Two of his earlier projects To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, 1995 (below ltop) and To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997 (below bottom) both lend themselves well to being captured as a single moments. Both works document Zhang measuring himself (with the help of others) against the natural world.

In Foam, 1998 (below left) and Family Tree, 2000 (below right), Zhang tackles the issues of his own personal identity. In one, he holds the photographs of family members in his mouth (is our history inside us, or can we swallow it?); in the other, he disappears under the layers of stories written on his face by Chinese calligraphers.

Most of Zhang's works are subtly infused with traditional Chinese values and Buddhist teachings and these ideas provide the framework and backdrop for his autobiographical explorations. His performances seem to find the just the right balance: surprising without being gimmicky, earnest and stoic without being pompous, real and meaningful without being contrived. Overall, Zhang has generated a significant number of highly memorable and thought provoking moments in his short career; this book provides a valuable one-stop summary of his output.

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Zhang Huan's artist website can be found here.

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Collector's POV: Zhang Huan's images have become mainstays of the auction circuit. Most are large chromogenic prints (often 40x60, but generally in various formats), in edition sizes ranging from perhaps a handful to as many as 25. Prices for single images have ranged from $10000 to over $100000, with larger groups of pictures (like Family Tree) selling for $150000 to $250000. Even though his work is often found in photography auctions, it has clearly crossed over to the "contemporary art" price schedule.
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(Aside: Blogger's handling of embedded images is frustratingly quirky, so please excuse any unexpected odd formatting or white spaces you may encounter, especially likely if you are using a reader.)