AIPAD Came and I Went

I went through AIPAD this year with Walter Mason of the Haggerty Museum, and he gave me a real lesson in prints and prices. It was fascinating since that is not my forte. And since we felt the same way about a lot of the work, I had a great time at AIPAD this year.

Let me just say that I was much more interested in the vintage prints than most of the contemporary work I saw. The luscious silver gelatin and platinum prints were so glossy and delicious I would have loved to buy them all. There were small gems everywhere you looked. I loved the cinematic quality of Yutaka Takanashi work from the mid-60's, and the multitude of anonymous historic images.

There were a number of Civil Rights-era photos capturing historic moments seen by Charles Moore, Steve Schaprio, Bill Eppridge, Grey Villet and others. I was really moved by them and felt reconnected with American history in a way that seems almost lost these days.
Charles Moore: Demonstrators Blasted Against a Doorway, Seventeenth Street, May 3, 1963.
As James Chaney's family awaited the drive to his burial, 12-year-old Ben gazed outward by Bill Eppridge (Monroe Gallery of Photography)
Grey Villet: The Little Rock Nine (Monroe Gallery of Photography)

There was a wonderful print of Eddie Adams' famed Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the point-blank execution of a Vietcong suspect, complete with red grease pencil crop line.

There was a decent amount of contemporary photography this year, and so much of it were large prints, frequently for no apparent reason that I can see except it has greater impact. I saw Alec Soth's new work, Broken Manual and wasn't especially impressed. I feel the same way about Alex Prager (below Film Still #1-Yancey Richardson Gallery). I can see the reasoning behind the work, but it just seems that it's an idea made for maximum sales. That's the same way I feel about Cindy Sherman's work. I can see why people would buy it, I just don't see the deeper meaning.

I saw some work that leaves me scratching my head and worried about the future of the medium. Lynn Bianchi's Dinner Conversation (below top), and Meghan Boody (bottom) are photographers whose work I really don't understand. It has no resonance with me, and seeing it at AIPAD makes me wonder who decides what is valuable. I know that art is subjective, but in a place filled with truly important and wonderful work, how did these pieces find galleries?


I did like the following work: Mark Seliger's nude from the Steven Kasher Gallery. I was sorry I missed this show, as I know Mark to be a photographer with real depth that you might not be aware of if you judge him simply from his Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair work.

How could you not love Robert Mapplethorpe's portrait of Patti Smith?

And Richard Renaldi's Smashed Water Tower (Robert Morat Galerie) is a delight, looking like a deflated balloon in the landscape.

Martine Fougeron was there with her wonderful work of teenagers in all their glory, a class contrast with Chris Killip's early 80's portraits of British kids. And then there were these wonderful photograph--Frida Kahlo in New York, and an amazing Norman Parkinson. So fresh and exciting; why I don't see more exciting work like this?


I see so much derivative work around. I guess that's to be expected in general, but to see things at AIPAD that are photographs of subjects others have done more successfully is a shame. Christian Patterson was an assistant to William Eggleston, and you can just tell by looking at the work. Couldn't he have chosen different subject matter to base his career on? Or is he represented by a gallery because he was Eggleston's assistant?

Michael Wolf's Google Street View series was represented by a giant print, and it still makes me furious. Talk about doing nothing to create something. Taking a photo of a screen does not make a body of work. And the weird thing was I really liked another body of his work, showing faces seen through the windows of Japanese commuter trains. I believe the series is called Tokyo Compression. Those were wonderful, giving me a glimpse into the people caught staring blankly out of train windows. I loved the way faces were smushed into the glass, with condensation covering the windows.

I also loved the vintage prints of Herbert Ponting, taken during Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole . The portraits were so beautiful, the men so attractive, it was almost like a Ralph Lauren ad. You would think they were fashion models if not for the frost-bitten lips and skin. (Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery)


I have seen so many animal portraits--dogs seem to be of special mention. Charlotte Dumas' (top) portraits didn't impress me as much as Ponting's portrait of the heroic Sled Dog. (bottom)

Steven Kasher Gallery

But perhaps the most confounding work I saw was Ayano Sudo's "They are not me, but me" series of portraits. Done with candy colors, and glitter! (yes, you heard me right), they sprang from the world of Japanese child-like culture, full of surface youth and beauty, with nothing deep to ground them in reality. I can see why people would buy them and think they were very cool for owning something like this, but to be honest, these images depress me. They are like candy cotton (and even reflect those colors), and it's as if you could eat them without having realized it. All style with no substance.


I thought art was meant to challenge or illuminate the world for us. At best they express emotions that pull us into their world and upset our way of looking at things. Or at least that is what I'd like to think. Too much of what I saw at AIPAD was mediocre. The work didn't stay with me, didn't make me think about it days after the show. If I wasn't writing this it would already be gone from my mind. I understand that galleries need to make money too, but is that a substitute for showing unexceptional work, often at sizes that you cannot ignore? Size alone doesn't add to my understanding of the work.

That really struck me. If you're a photographer without a gallery behind you, what do you do? Do you print giant photographs for attention, do you find a sellable idea and exploit it? What if you just want to make great photographs? Or follow an idea as far as it will go? Will you ever get your work before a larger audience?

I wonder what photographers felt after attending AIPAD. Was it just a chance to see some wonderful work? Did you leave feeing energized or demoralized? I'd really like to know.

Newsweek Sells for $1--What's Next?

I’m not one given to bouts of nostalgia, but when I heard Newsweek had been sold for $1 (and more than $50 million in liabilities) to billionaire Sidney Harman, it made me think back to when I worked there, and how I really came into my own as a photo editor.

I began freelancing at Newsweek in 1990, recommended by Karen Mullarkey, who knew me from a freelance stint I did at Sports Illustrated when she was the DOP. This was the first time I was really on my own as a photo editor, and I found myself the freelance cover photo editor. As the cover photo editor at Newsweek you had to handle the domestic cover and three overseas editions. Strangely enough the overseas editions were easier because Newsweek had staff and contributing photographers around the world, and you also had agencies to rely upon. This was the first time I felt over my head in a job, but the staff was so helpful and friendly I soon got the rhythm and had a great time.

I came back as a freelancer in 1991, working on special issues, including "When Worlds Collide," the centennial anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage, done in collaboration with the Smithsonian. I was given total free rein to research this anyway and anywhere I wished. I donned white gloves to look at ancient manuscripts, dug into library and university collections, and photographed pre-Columbian artifacts. It was an amazing project, and a multi-award winning one as well.

One of my biggest shoots at that time was for a cover story, "The Science of Sports" (why does a curveball curve, etc.). I hired Mark Seliger to shoot the cover and five inside images, and we chose Bo Jackson, then one of the biggest name in sports, and two sports at that (football and baseball). After weeks of negotiation, discussions of props, prop building and art direction, I flew out to Kansas City (where Jackson was) with Mark and a crew of four or five (can’t really remember) and waited for the prop truck to arrive at our rented studio. We worked all night to set up each shot, slept 2 or 3 hours and then waited for Bo Jackson to show.


Of course he arrived late, wasn’t in a very cooperative mood, and when he walked off the set, both Mark and I had to firmly insist he continue (it was pretty amazing to go up to a huge, muscled football player and demand he get back on set and basically shut the fuck up—I was exhilarated!). I don't think these two shots have ever been seen before.

The shoot ended up being great, the most expensive I had done, and yet it never ran. Why? Well that same day, a dictator named Sadaam Hussein invaded a little country called Kuwait. Little did we know what would happen next. Thank you Mark for being such a dream to work with.


In 1992 I was hired on staff by Guy Cooper, and worked on the Back-Of-The-Book section (BOB in magazine parlance) which covered everything from fashion to science to law to food to education and beyond. About half of each years covers were in my section, and one of the best issues I worked on was “A Week In the Death of America” about murder around the country. I hired Eugene Richards to ride around the city with a police band radio waiting for a murder scene he could shoot. I also hired photographers around the country like Bryce Lankard in New Orleans, Jeff Lowe, Stephen Shames, Jeff Mermelstein, Anthony Barboza. We photographed a gun show, a victim rights group, a minor incarcerated for murder and more.

This was one of the most amazing projects I’ve ever worked on, and as you can imagine, the logistics were intense. In fact, we didn’t even have a cover image until the very last moment. That kept me biting my nails up until deadline. But the project won multiple awards, and still remains one of the best things I’ve ever done.

I was able to hire anyone I wanted, shoot anyway I wanted, and do anything I wanted—total control and total creative license. What a dream for a photo editor! As a result I really was able to stretch out and learn how important picking the right photographer for the right assignment was. I learned how to art direct and visualize stories for a magazine format, and worked with the best editor ever, Aric Press, who trusted me to give him fantastic images for our section’s stories. I worked with a wonderful photographer, Jeff Lowe, who was an amazing creative problem solver. Jeff could reimagine a mundane subject into a beautifully compelling image.


I did some of the first photo illustrations Newsweek had ever used; I shot stories with Holgas, in sepia, with big sets, and with great photographers. Newsmagazines used to be an amazing proving ground for photo editors where the craft of photo editing was learned, and the best were able to contribute new visual ways of story telling to the audience. That’s what Newsweek was for me.



But newsweeklies have been way too slow to change with the times, and fell victim to the belief that photographs didn’t compel people to buy and read the magazines--people were more interested in the writing. Well, since by the time the magazine is on the stands people already know nearly all there is to know about a particular story, unless there is something offered that your audience cannot get elsewhere, they will pass you up. Great photographs are the unique added value to offer an audience. Great photographs can tell a story without words, and can impart new information, deep emotion and subcontext that is frequently missed in the text due to mediocre editorial.

Now would be the time for Newsweek to step back into the limelight as a visual storytelling publication—whether on the Web, on iPad or in paper form. You cannot get a jump on the news, but you can go so much deeper into stories around the world through the use of photography. And there are so many amazing stories being told by photographers that you don’t have to go far to find them. You just have to give them a platform.

Here’s hoping the new owner is smart enough to reinvent the magazine, break new ground and set it apart by the use of great photographic storytelling.

Brace For Impact: Stephen Mallon's Flight 1549 Show is Up!

On January 15 of this year New Yorker's got a ringside seat to a most unusual event, the safe landing of USAir Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. In March I wrote about the problems photographer Stephen Mallon was having in showing the photos he had been contracted to take of the salvaging of that flight.
After lots of publicity and back and forth, Mallon was able to publish his work with minor alterations. Now "Brace For Impact: The Aftermath of Flight 1549" has opened at the Front Room Gallery at 147 Roebling Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I went there last night to see the 13 large scale photographs and they look fantastic! It's an exhibit worth seeing, so get yourselves over to Brooklyn now. I asked Stephen some questions about his background and his work.

Tell us a bit about your photography background
I got started pretty early with my dad’s AE-1, with my first photo being at age 3. I shot on and off for the next 12 yrs, and after not pursuing a military career I decided to go after photography. I got my BFA from RIT in 1996, assisted HASHI, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Bob Sacha, Mark Seliger, and many others, making just about every imaginable mistake and learning from some of them (the mistakes).
I started shooting as soon as I arrived with my first editorial job in '96 for Black Book magazine. By the year 2000 I had my first cover shoot for a computer trade magazine, CRN along with a contract with Image Bank. Both have lead me into many great places in my almost 10-year shooting career.

What made you settle on industrial photography?
Ive always been a fan of the sandbox. It was what I was shooting when I was 15, got away from it for a while but was always staring at the antennas and bucket loaders when I was on the road. As my commercial and fine art careers were moving along, I realized I was always drifting back to shooting dirt and machines. A push came from a creative director who was looking at my work and told me that the landscapes I was shooting were beautiful, but to make it market-friendly there needed to be a human element involved. Another meeting, and another Sr. art buyer pointed out that I needed to incorporate the workers as well to truly succeed.

How did you get to photograph the salvaging of Flight 1549?
Weeks Marine,(the crane company) began commissioning me after I photographed their ongoing project of retiring 1500 NY subway cars and putting them in the ocean to form artificial reefs. Our working relationship started growing from there.

Can you sum up the situation with the embargo and how it was lifted?
The images had been pulled up and down from the web site a number of times between the NTSB and AIG, and it was a little scary when I wasn’t sure if the images were going to be visible ever. Pressure mounted to release the photos and with the help from two lawyers, Amy Benjamin and Victor Pearlman (ASMP!), journalists, and fans, the images were released again. I was able to get the legal firm representing AIG and USAirways to grant all the self-promotional usage that I had asked for as long as the logo of their client was not clearly visible. The NTSB had a hold on the interiors for a little while after that but once the investigation was over they were also released. The interiors are currently not on my site. Please stop by to see the prints at the show!

Tell us about the show
“Brace for Impact: The Aftermath of Flight 1549” opens at Front Room Gallery Thursday Sept 10th (TODAY!) with a reception on Saturday, September 12th The prints range from 20x30 to 40x60 and were printed by Luscious Ink and I have to say look pretty frackin great! A limited edition catalog is available at the gallery.

What are you itching to shoot?
Ooooh nuclear submarines, I might be heading to 3 Mile Island soon, those airplane graveyards in the West and in Australia, the tunneling under the Hudson River, military recycling, and the military's new hydrogen locomotive, to name a couple.

What’s next?
Hopefully 3 Mile Island. I have to work on a grant proposal for a ship breaking yard in Texas, and there is a sewage treatment plant I am on hold for, and lectures! I am speaking at B&H Photo in New York on October 1st, at Front Room Gallery October 3rd, and a little bit at PhotoPlus Expo on October 23rd.