Now It Can Be Told

There's always a fairly legitimate reason when there's a long delay between posts. And the reason this time is that I was deep in the planning and negotiations for moving the gallery to a new space three times the size of my current gallery and one block south.

The new address is 527 West 23rd Street and we will be opening on May 12 with an exhibition based on a portfolio we created with Kate Moss featuring pictures of her by 11 of the world's leading fashion and fine art photographers. As this show was originally planned when we were going to be in our current space, in addition to the portfolio we will be showing other great photographs of Kate Moss dating from 1988 (by Gene Lemuel) to a picture taken just a couple of weeks ago by Terry Richardson. Not to be missed are pictures by Glen Luchford, Herb Ritts, Mary McCartney, and British pop artist Peter Blake.

You can preview the show here. And as always, all blog readers are welcome to come to the opening which runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on May 12.

Now please excuse me, we need to get back to packing and unpacking!

Return of The Weekend Video

It's been a while since I've done a Weekend Video but the song "Price Tag" by Jessie J certainly has me boppin' and looks to be the catchy song of the summer! I particularly like the anti-materialistic lyrics - a nice antidote to the designer label references in so many hits.

Seems like everybody's got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night.
When the sale comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop, for a minute and
Smile

Why is everybody so serious
Acting so damn mysterious
Got your shades on your eyes
And your heels so high
That you can't even have a good time

Everybody look to their left (yeah)
Everybody look to their right (ha)
Can you feel that (yeah)
We're paying with love tonight
It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag
Ain't about the (uh) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching.
Aint about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Spring Reading

I do apologize for the gap in posting. Travel does that as it's often difficult to blog on overseas trips and then there's all the work to catch up on when you get back. There's also a lot going on gallery-wise which I'll update on soon, but it's all good.

One thing travel does afford me is the chance to catch up on reading. Something I'm really bad it during the normal course of events. Of course the books I read are usually photography related and this trip enabled me to catch up with two of the best books I've read in a long time.

The first - The Alice Behind Wonderland - by Simon Winchester is a short book but an engrossing and highly detailed account of the backstory and creation of Lewis Carroll's famous image of Alice Liddell as a beggar girl. Winchester's prose is somewhat breathless, but intentionally so, reflecting the pent-up emotions of both the artist and his time.

Winchester paints an engrossing portrait of Charles Dodgson, his Oxford milieu, and the Liddell family - Alice in particular. He also does an excellent job describing the evolution of photography in it's early days. Carroll's famous picture was taken in 1858, not far from the first days of fixing photographic images on paper. So it's an all round illuminating read as well as breezily entertaining.

The other book, which I'm about halfway through, is Patti Smith's recollection of her friendship and relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. I've never been a big follower of Patti Smith so it has taken me a while to get to the book in spite of its winning a National Book Award. However, Smith is a natural and highly gifted writer and the book is not what you would expect. It's really an account of growing up, of being poor and struggling artists, of living in downtown New York City in the late 1960s and 1970s, of finding your voice, and it's a love story that's complicated in the way love stories are where the love is real but there's something there to stop it from ever working out.

On the Road Again

As you can probably see from this picture taken out of my hotel window, I'm in Paris - to participate in a symposium at the Pernod Ricard Foundation. Then on to London to meet with some museum and gallery people.

I've just arrived but will share whatever good things I find.

Shot

Photograph by Robert Beck/SI

The above photograph of Brigham Young University's Jimmer Fredette graces the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated and is justly being hailed an instant classic. Taken by SI's Robert Beck during BYU's third-round win over Gonzaga, it captures the 6' 2" leading collegiate scorer as he soars to make a three-pointer.

It has it all! The impossible height Fredette seems to achieve, the domination of the Gonzaga defender, the dramatic light that echoes the ball as it prepares to make its way to the hoop. The greatest sports photographs are always works of art.

AIPAD Reader Favorites

Nobuyoshi Araki. Untitled, from the series "Mythology", 2001

Two people were kind enough to send in their AIPAD favorites. Above - from photographer Frank Schramm with this explanation:

Here is my favorite image from this years AIPAD Show 2011. The Galerie Priska Pasquer, who specializes in Japanese Photography and, who was effected not getting all the images it wanted from some of there newer artists, due to the Tsunami, I was very taken by a photograph by one of my favorite photographers, Nobuyoshi Araki. This being from his series "Mythology" 2001 - I have never seen this image before. It is not the style one would expect from Araki's - other work. It's interesting to me because of it's - classic style of a young japanese woman dressed in traditional kimono attire. I really love this image, because, I see it as Araki - "Inside - Out" in reflection of his traditional images.

Photograph by Esteban Pastorino Diaz

And these two images (above and below) from Lane Nevares without any comment.

Photograph by Rita Bernstein

AIPAD 2011

It's the weekend of AIPAD (the Association of International Photographic Art Dealers show) at the Park Avenue Armory, and while it didn't work out on our gallery schedule to participate, there are plenty of great things to see. Given a busy travel schedule, I haven't able to do my usual aisle by aisle round-up, but one of the great pleasures of AIPAD is discovering that gem of a photograph by some unknown or little known photographer and this year, the always reliable David Winter came through again.

For those not in the know, David is a private dealer specializing in vernacular, press, 19th century and other great images not in the usual high-end or big name price range. It's the image that matters to him and his booth is always bursting with a hyper-salon style floor to ceiling hanging.

I caught this image there of Coretta Scott King and while I don't know the exact details, it seems to have been taken at a rally in the 1960s (that's Harry Belafonte in the back) or perhaps a funeral. It looks a little like a William Klein of the period but the composition with King's face framed by the two military helmets, the drama of the foreshortening combined with the slashing line of the gun and bayonet, and the incredible nobility of King's face make for a memorable and powerful image.

AIPAD runs through tomorrow afternoon so if you're anywhere near the city do go see it. And feel free to send me your own favorite find. (To info@danzigerprojects.com.)