July 2006 Archives
Nearly every review of the current Sontag tribute show at the Met has mentioned that On Photography was fiercely resisted by the photography priesthood of the time when it was first published. And each time this has left me scratching my head as to why. On Photography was one of the first "serious" books I read about the medium when I got interested a few years back, so it serves as my foundational understanding for what photography is all about. The idea that Sontag's thinking about the medium would be heretical was pretty much unfathomable until I read Jed Perl's review of the show in the New Republic and he highlighted how strongly the Lens Work crowd was in sway at the time.
if On Photography got under people's skin, that was really because, whether you agreed with Sontag or not, she had tapped into the feverishness with which people were embracing photography. Sontag got at a truth that many people did not really want to admit, which was that their ardor for photographs eluded--shattered--all the old aesthetic categories. And then she went right ahead and suggested that photography was so variegated in its intentions and so unpredictable in its implications that it would probably elude any definition, aesthetic or otherwise.
(via Design Observer)
The art blogosphere is agog over the Met's announcement last week that it would rise to the challenge of MoMA's $20 admission price (albeit, the Met's is only "suggested") for most expensive museum in town. Faux-rage was thrown all around about how this would exclude the young and the poor and negatively impact the enjoyment and development of art. The argument goes that if a kid doesn't get access to MoMA or the Met when he/she is an impressionable youth, they will never be moved to make great works in thefuture. While the impact of viewing art at an early age appears to be the only indicator of actively art appreciation as an adult, so to some extent this is a true criticism, I suspect attendance will not drop for the want of a fiver. Museums hold near monoplies over their collections and as such as highly insensitive to price changes. Look at the line outside of MoMA and you'll see the tend for the Met.
Plus, this pricing isn't out of line with other NYC venues. Anything better than the bleachers at Yankee Stadium will set you back at least $19, not including peanuts and Cracker Jacks. For comparison, here are some other museum admission prices:
Guggenheim
Admission and complimentary audio tour
Adults $18
Students and Seniors (65 years +) with valid ID $15
Children under 12 Free
Frick
Admission and complimentary audio tour
$15, adults
$10, senior citizens (62 and over)
$5, students with valid identification.
On Sundays, pay what you wish from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Morgan Library
$12 Adults
$8 Children (under 16)
$8 Seniors (65 and over)
$8 Students (with current ID)
Free to members and children 12 and under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Admission is free on Fridays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Museo del Barrio
Admission fees:
Suggested admission: Adults: $6.00
Students & Seniors: $4.00
Members & Children Under 12: FREE
Museum of City of New York
Suggested Admission
Adults; $9
Seniors, students; $5
Families; $20 (max. 2 adults)
Children 12 and under; free
Brooklyn Museum
Suggested contribution of $8 for adults
$4 for Seniors and Students with valid I.D.
Children under 12 accompanied by an adult are admitted for free.
Free admission on Sundays between 10 am and 12 pm.
Elsewhere:
I was able to get out and see some photos this past weekend. Finally! The summer is typically marked by a lot of group shows, seasonal themes (beaches, swimming pools, nudity!) and an airing out of the flat files, but I’ve found both June and July this year to have a lot of interesting work on display. And much of it is outside of Chelsea, in Midtown’s old-school photo alley. Here’s the July shot list:
In Midtown
Taiji Matsue
The bulk of the show is made up of Matsue’s black and white urban landscapes with a few nearly abstract Sommer-inspired natural landscapes thrown in for good measure.
Through Aug 25 at Cohen Amador
41 E 57th St, 6th Flr
(212) 759-6740
On the Rocks and Over the Edge: Bob Adelman, Joyce Baronio, and Jerry Berndt
and
Tom Arndt: Minnesota
On the Rocks bundles three photographers who illuminate the bar flies, the pimps and the hookers of the 70s
Arndt’s work echoes Bill Owens’, sans the ironic (even if retrospectively) wink.
Through Aug 25 at Howard Greenberg
41 E 57nd St, 13th Flr
(212)334-0010
Selfportraitr: An Interactive Exhibition Curating the Flickr.com Community
An online exhibition (you stand at iMacs and view the work) of self-portraits contributed to the Flickr online photography community. Proves Sturgeon’s law. But there’s pony or two in there somewhere.
Through Aug 25 at Pace/MacGill
32 E 57th St, 9th Flr
(212) 759-7999
Louis Stettner: Streetwise 1947-2006
and
Jonathan Lewis: WalmArt
Through July 29 at Bonni Benrubi
41 E 57nd St, 13th Flr
(212) 888-6007
In Chelsea
:Small Wonders
As an antidote to our large-scale obsession, Mann’s put together a show of tiny gems, none of which measures larger than 4x5. Wonderful pair of Callahan photos.
Through Aug 25 at Robert Mann
210 11th Ave, 10th Flr (btwn 10th and 11th Ave)
(212) 989-7600
I wasn't much interested in seeing the Atta Kim show at ICP (or the concurrent show at Yossi Milo) until I read today's review in the NY Times.
Every day, hundreds of tourists snap photographs of a crowd- and car-jammed Times Square. The average picture takes — what? — 15 seconds to shoot? The same picture of the same place takes the Korean photographer Atta Kim eight hours. And his Times Square ends up with only an eerie trace of a human presence, like a deserted movie set.
Holland Cotter's above description applies to only one of Kim's projects. His variety of approaches is uncommon for a photographer working at his level. Once a photographer is identified with a particular style of approach, it's difficult to break out into another style. Consider the reaction Bob Dylan got when he went electric.
From today's Independent, "Click! The Art of the Camera", strangely posted to the"science and technology" section, covers the huge uptick in auction prices for photographs. The article (falsely, in my opinion) makes a distinction between traditional and digital photography, a distinction which doesn't really exist or isn't really applicable in auctionable work - yet.
"Daniel Newburg, a dealer and founder of Photo-London, Britain's first art photography fair, now in its third year, agrees. "The era of great art photography has reached an end. And now our culture is looking back and deciding what is significant."
On the one hand, I guess I should be grateful that someone is not fueling the speculation that drives cradle robbing at art schools, but to say "the era of great art photography has reached an end" when the artform is less than 200 years old stretches credulity. (To be fair, later in the article he back peddles on this.)
Photo District News has posted a list of summer photography festivals. If you're in (or visiting) France, Texas, California or Argentina, you're in luck.
