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.

This Place

Here is another interesting exhibition for those of you in NY to check out.  "This Place" currently at the Brooklyn Museum  " explores the complexity of Israel and the West Bank, as place and metaphor, through the eyes of twelve internationally acclaimed photographers."

For all of you film lovers out there

Courtesy of Film Ferrania

I found this post that I wrote ten months ago but never published.  Things are going very slowly for them as you can see.  It is worth keeping track of their progress.
For all of you film lovers out there, hope is alive.  Check out the story of Film Ferrania and the team that is working hard to bring back analog film in both motion and still formats!  They started with a Kickstarter campaign and have kept it going from there.  You can read all about them here.

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.

Manipulating the Traditional

The current Getty exhibition Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography explores artist experimentation with the basic components of photography.  I know that I may come across as a strong traditionalist, but I thoroughly enjoy alternative  processes using traditional materials.  It's really the whole digital thing that puts me off.  I just can't help it.  I am set in my ways.  If I were in California, I would be here.  Let's face it.  I don't really think there is a day where I would not be at the Getty if I could.

Dandy Lion

Sorry for the radio silence.  I recently went to see   Dandy Lion: (Re)Articulating Black Masculine Identity    at the Museum of Contemporary Photography.  I had not been to this museum in many years.  In fact, I believe it was at another address.  It is now three floors.  I have read reviews by people complaining that it is a very small museum, but that is the beauty of it.  It encourages an intimate viewing of the artwork.  You can't just blow by.  You should embrace the opportunity to slow down and observe.

The works included in this exhibition utilize both modern and traditional techniques.  There were digital prints as well as silver gelatin.  Though beautiful, I have to admit that the actual digital prints do not really hold my interest.  Show me some beautiful grain and tonal range and I am yours.  Some of the pieces that I found especially interesting were contemporary wet collodion prints.  They beckoned you closer to observe their beauty.  You have to appreciate the level of difficulty there is when working in this particular medium.  It takes incredible skill and patience.

 It is interesting to observe the many black sartorial experience from various countries around the globe.

This exhibition is up for another month so there is plenty of time to view it or plan on seeing it if you are planning a visit to Chicago.