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"From April 9 to April 13, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) presented its 28th annual photography show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. They also hosted a gala benefit preview for the John Szarkowski Fund, an endowment for photography acquisitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition to being a photographer, curator, author, historian, and critic, John Szarkowski (1925–2007) was MoMA’s esteemed and influential Director of Photography from 1962 to 1991." |
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Milton Fletcher is director and curator of cybergallery66.org
Edith Maybin, Untitled #3, 2006. 26 x 33 inches, edition of 10; 51 x 40 inches, edition of 6. Courtesy of Jackson Fine Art.From April 9 to April 13, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) presented its 28th annual photography show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. They also hosted a gala benefit preview for the John Szarkowski Fund, an endowment for photography acquisitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition to being a photographer, curator, author, historian, and critic, John Szarkowski (1925–2007) was MoMA’s esteemed and influential Director of Photography from 1962 to 1991.
Szarkowski’s landmark 1967 show “New Documents,” for example, introduced the work of Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, and Lee Friedlander to a wide audience. Szarkowski’s recent passing and his considerable standing in the art world undoubtedly helped attract some of the gala’s big time contributors. As to be expected, this event appealed to the upscale and well-dressed crowd that enjoyed drinking cocktails and wine while event cameras recorded them socializing and visiting any one of the 75 dealer booths at the show. More important than the glitz, however, was that they helped contribute to the $280,000 that was raised for the Fund.
The museum-quality photographs shown at AIPAD were eclectic in nature: the variety of subjects and genres included art, fashion, celebrity, and documentary, and there was both contemporary and historical work. During the run of the show, which had an 18% increase in attendance compared to last year, most of the 8,000 visitors (including such notables as Cindy Adams, Kathy Bates, Chuck Close, Matt Dillon, Calvin Klein, Paolo Ventura, and Alex Soth) wanted to see all kinds of photographs, while collectors zeroed in on pieces for their collections, the majority on 19th century work—though there was interest in modern and contemporary pieces as well. Other attendees came to visit the booths of dealers that they liked and knew personally. Then there were the professionals: photographers, museum directors, and curators who came to the show from around the world. For instance, photographer Lisa Holden flew in from Holland to attend, meet interested visitors, and discuss her work at the Contemporary Works/Vintage Works booth. Unfortunately, there were relatively few people of color in attendance. Hopefully as time goes on the audience for art photography will become more racially diverse.
To many dealers’ fiscal delight, sales were brisk—especially considering the current woeful state of the economy. In general, the prices for pieces ranged from hundreds of dollars for hand-painted tintype images by unknown 19th century photographers to more than $100,000 dollars for other works, such as a vintage Pierre Dubreuil gelatin silver print that was sold for $130,000 by Michael Shapiro Photographs of San Francisco.
Some dealers had interesting observations regarding this AIPAD event. When the Edwynn Houk Gallery of New York City was asked the purpose of participating in a show like AIPAD, its director Julie Castellano said, “There are a few reasons. One is that it is a unique opportunity to see almost every curator from around this country. Almost all museums put it in their budget to send their curator to this exhibition. It’s also an opportunity for us to exhibit vintage works as well as contemporary works together. At our gallery, we’ll do an exhibition of vintage works or we can do an exhibition of a contemporary artist, but we can’t always show their works together and it’s interesting to see how their works inform each other, what we can curate mixing up those works.”
George Hemphill of Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington D.C. described the kinds of satisfying results that can come from presenting work at this show: “The obvious measure of success is how many sales we make, but then at a later date we start to assess who we had contact with—be it a curator, a publisher, or a group of artists who come through and gain a appreciation for another artist’s work. We may make some other connections that might lead to, say, the publication of a book on an artist that we represent.”
Lisa Sette of the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been participating in AIPAD since the late 80s and noted changes she has seen as time has gone on, “There’s more contemporary. Maybe less repetitive vintage. A little more vernacular, which I like—found photos and anonymous kinds of things. I find those kind of delightful. I’ve also noticed that things have been presented more professionally over the years. The size of the venue has grown, the size of the pictures have grown.”
Coincidentally, Ms. Sette’s booth also featured some of the most intriguing work at this year’s AIPAD. Nissa Kubly’s exquisitely made pinhole cameras and viewing devices were very eye-catching. Utilizing classic camera obscura technology (which has provided a basic foundation for photography image-making), her cameras are made in the present day, produce timeless imagery, and also recall Photography’s humble beginnings when tinkerers and inventors made their own cameras.
Also compelling were the earthworks of Matthew Moore. An artist and a farmer near Phoenix, Moore noticed the encroaching suburban sprawl around his farmlands. As a result, he used some of his acreage to create mammoth scale pieces that depict housing floor plans and pre-designed community developments. By using soil, wheat and sorghum instead of wood, bricks and paint, Moore has made homegrown art that ambiguously comments on the changing times in his surroundings. The resulting images, shot from an airplane, are fascinating. It is another world, more organic than our own, but instantly familiar to anyone that knows the ‘burbs.
AIPAD also featured free public events on Saturday, April 12 in the Armory’s breathtakingly ornate Veteran’s Room (the stained glass work was done by Louis Comfort Tiffany of Tiffany lamps fame). The first event was “The Legacy of John Szarkowski,” hosted by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of the Department of Photography at MoMA. He delivered a short, academically oriented lecture, “Photography Until Now: John Szarkowski’s Materialist History of Photography,” in which he mainly discussed the Szarkowski book Photography Until Now. Mr. Galassi also moderated a panel discussion of AIPAD dealers whose lives were affected by Szarkowski. They all spoke very respectfully about the late man’s commanding manner, keen eye, and intellect.
Afterwards, there was a screening of Richard Woodward’s 1998 short documentary film, “John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography,” that was prefaced with a long, rambling, and apologetic introduction by the filmmaker. Mr. Woodward was concerned about the low budget and technical quality of the film. He shouldn’t have worried. It was entirely unnecessary for him to try to lower expectations. In fact, the event’s organizers would have done well if they had started the Szarkowski program with the film. An engaging profile of his life, it featured relaxed interviews in which Szarkowski discussed his life and career and the photographers he liked and supported, and commented on his own photography (for which he was awarded 2 Guggenheim Fellowships).
The documentary also included master photographer Joel Meyerowitz providing insightful and knowledgeable commentary. This filmic introduction to Szarkowski instantly gave all members of the audience a basic understanding and context of Szarkowski’s importance that Mr. Galassi and the panel hadn’t provided. But, on the other hand, most of the audience was probably already familiar with Szarkowski as this event was by far the best attended of the free presentations of the day.
Later that afternoon, AIPAD, along with the Aperture Foundation, presented another lecture program entitled “An Insider’s Look at Photography: Conversations with Writers + Curators.” Laurel Ptak and Michelle Dunn Marsh of Aperture moderated these talks. Geoffrey Batchen, Professor of the History of Photography and Contemporary Art at the Graduate Center of CUNY, and Lyle Rexer, an independent art critic, took turns conducting slide show discourses.
Mr. Batchen previewed an upcoming 19th century British photography show that will premiere in October 2011 at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. He showed images of rare 19th Century stereo daguerreotypes (which produce a 3-D effect when used with a stereoscopic viewer), as well as an engrossing contemporaneous drawing of a typical portrait studio of that era, with its rotating sitting stage and camera rigging that allowed the photographer to follow the arc of sun when lighting the sitter.
Mr. Rexer, in contrast, discussed an ongoing project of his that examines abstraction in contemporary photography. It was hard to know what he was trying to say, because his presentation started late and he had to race through it. He possesses an impressive but somewhat arcane vocabulary, which caused some confusion. Also, he had a tendency to talk in and out of microphone range, which made it difficult to hear his complete thoughts, although the photographs he showed were striking and stark. At the very least, the audience witnessed a critic going through the analytical process of formulating an approach to interpreting this type of photography. Mr. Rexer’s completed project will make an interesting read as an essay, if he has it published.
After a break, the final set of lectures took place. Alison Nordström, Curator of Photographs at George Eastman House, presented an overview of the House’s African photograph collection as a preview for a show that will open this July in Rochester, New York. She was especially keen about the photographs of Africans taken by other Africans.
Sandra S. Phillips, Senior Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, showed material for her long-gestated upcoming exhibition, “The Unseen Photographer.” She showed photos from various eras that were of the hidden, invasive, street, voyeur, and surveillance varieties. (Ms. Phillips envisions including video clips in the show when it is ready for public viewing later this year.) A substantial amount of the images depicted various acts of sex and violence. This led to a prolonged Q&A session regarding the ethics of photographing people in public and private places; only the hardcore stayed for this finale.
In all, despite some slight presentation problems with the free events, AIPAD New York 2008 was very engaging for both the eye and the mind, with the work shown and the enthusiastic people who attended.
