Plan Ahead

Plan ahead so that you can make your plans to head on over to the Whitney Museum and see "Danny Lyon: Message to the Future".  This will be the first retrospective of his career in over twenty-five years.  The exhibition will also include his film work.  If you are unfamiliar with who he is, here is a short interview.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann from Alexander Joffre on Vimeo.
 I love vimeo.  I probably spend too much time on it, but it can be so beautiful.  From time to time I will post videos about important photographers.  Probably without any comment from me, because it is more about the words of the photographer.

Pack your bags

So sorry for the incredibly long silence.  I have been trying to get things in order on my end.  Very soon I will have a large inventory ready for purchase in the shop.  If you are interested in vintage cameras, etc.  Check back here for shop updates.  For now I have decided that it would be better if I posted some future exhibitions worth viewing.  That way, when I slack off at least the information will have already been posted.  Let us start with the upcoming exhibition at the Getty.  "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium."  Oh, if I only had my own jet to fly around and view everything that I want to.  What I find interesting about this particular exhibition is that it is being shown at the same time as "The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs".  In past posts I have encouraged anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with Sam Wagstaff to take the time to do some research on him.  Since Mapplethorpe was so closely tied to Wagstaff it is a special opportunity to see both of these exhibitions at one time.  Please contact me if you get the chance to see these shows.

How this is going to work

   Although this blog has not been in existence for very long I have already discovered that it is really just a look at photography through my own personal filter.  For the most part there is no serious research being done, no theories being proven.  I am putting stuff out there that interests me in the hopes that it might interest someone else.    Therefor, I think it best to more often link to other articles and exhibitions rather than compose my own information.  Someone else has already made the effort to do all of the heavy lifting and probably has more to say about the subject than I would.  So, very often I may just link information that might be of interest to others.  I do all of the gathering of information so the reader has an easier time of it.
   I recently posted about an exhibition of the work of Duane Michals.  I know I mentioned that he is one of my favorite photographers.  I wanted to offer more reading about him and his work in case somebody was interested.  There is this article from the New Yorker.  Another from American Photo.  Lastly, the Wall Street Journal.

Through a Lens Darkly

I do not usually post full length films to my blog, but I found this to be very interesting and I can still fit it into Black History Month as well!  In case I did not embed the video correctly, you can also watch it here.

Something to see

     I will do my best to post about interesting photography exhibitions around the world.  I admit that the sole criteria for these choices will be that they will be shows that I would go and see if I could travel anywhere in the world.  This way I will not limit the options to my own geographic location.  To kick this off I am suggesting that everyone that lives in the Philly area jump at the chance to go to the Carnegie Museum of Art to see the various Duane Michals exhibitions  - "Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals" and "Duane Michals: Collector" .  I have long been a fan of his work.  I enjoy his use of a sequence of photographs as filmic storytelling.   I only wish I had a tiny hint of his ability to successfully marry image and text.  I have a wish list of photographs I want to add to my personal collection and a particular piece by him has always been at the top.  If I were able to go there I would also check out the exhibition "Teenie Harris Photographs: Civil Rights Perspectives"