civilized ku # 854 ~ bigger is better

NJ Yukon XL ~ NYC • click to embiggenWhat is it with vehicle names here in the good ole US of A?

You can drive a humongous land mass - aka: a Yukon, a state - aka: a Colorado, a mountain range - aka a Sierra (Nevada), a fleet of warships - aka: an Armada, a giant tree - aka: a Sequoia, or you can just drive a vehicle that makes no bones about being big - aka: a Titan.

crafted ku # 20 - pigeon regulation n˚ 1 (made by me, not Di Liu)

Pigeon Regulation n˚ 1 ~ Chelsea, NYC • click to embiggenAs mentioned, one of the exhibits I found very interesting was reGeneration2: tomorrow's photographers today - a group exhibition of the work of 80 picture makers selected from the top 120 photography schools around the world.

According to the exhibition's organizers, curators from Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, the aim of the exhibit was stated as:

As the study of any artist's career makes clear, early works contain the seed of the mature artist ... [B]y taking a young photographer at the outset of his or her career, we would have an idea, however imperfect, of what he or she could be doing twenty years hence. And by taking a significant number of photographers ... it just might add up to a tantalizing glimpse of what form or forms photography might take when the museum's fiftieth anniversary come around.

Only time will tell us what "form or forms photography might take" 30 years hence, but nevertheless, the exhibit certainly did feature a wide ranging diversity of genres and genre-bending pictures. That fact was what made this exhibit so interesting to me.

While it is unquestionably true that I am a devotee of "straight" picture making, I also appreciate most other genres of picture making. Hell, my own flesh and blood, AKA - The Cinemascapist makes cinematic inspired mise-en-scène ("constructed") pictures that blur the lines between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, and what is and what isn't. And add to that the fact that I am in the process of creating / crafting, for a summer exhibition, 3 more pictures in my life without the APA series - pictures that are each made up of 3 (or more) reality-based pictures blended together to create an imagined, but very realistic, "reality".

I mention constructed / crafted pictures because about 1/2 of the 80+ pictures in the reGeneration2 exhibit were constructed pictures. FYI, "constructed" includes staged pictures wherein an "event" is pictured in any entirely straightforward manner but the event itself is orchestrated. The pictures, which I like very much, from Tereza Vlckova's A Perfect Day, Elise ... series (the first 8 pictures on the page) would be an excellent example of staged events.

On the other hand, many constructed / crafted pictures usually are made from separate images or parts thereof which are blended together to create an imagined reality. Some imagined realities have the look of the real - the blending is virtually undetectable, while others stretch the look of the real into regions of pure and visually obvious fantasies. The pictures from Di Liu's Animal Regulation series are an excellent and, to my eye and sensibilities, a very interesting example of stretching to the breaking point the medium's characteristic of being a cohort to the real.

It is interesting to note that, of the other exhibits I viewed, there was a similar division of straight vs. constructed pictures. To be precise, about 2/3rds of the exhibits were of straight pictures while other 1/3 were of constructed pictures.

And, just to be perfectly clear, I pick and choose which pictures I like based upon whether or not, independent of genre, I like a picture or series of pictures. My reasons for liking a picture or series of pictures is often predicated upon many factors but rarely is it dependent upon genre.

civilized ku # 853 ~ creative little garden

The Creative Little Garden ~ 530 E. 6th Street, NYC • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 852 ~ polar opposite (of Chelsea)

Art Gallery ~ Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenMaybe I can have an exhibit in this Art Gallery.

civilized ku # 848-51 ~ pictures to the left, pictures to the right

Aperture Gallery ~ Chelsea, NYC • click to embiggen
3 exhibits - Italian Gardens / reGeneration2 / Light Cities ~ Chelsea, NYC • click to embiggenAs mentioned, my visit to the Chelsea gallery district was enjoyable and informative.

The enjoyable part came from seeing exhibits such as Lawrence Beck's Italian Gardens, Aperture Gallery's reGeneration2, David Stephenson's Light Cities (Nocturnes take note), Andy Warhol's Big Shots, O. Winston Link: The Last Stream Railroad in America, McDermott & McGough's Of Beauty and Being, and a truly weird exhibit (but, IMO, interesting only if you don't think of it as photography) - Kahn & Selesnick's MARS: ADRIFT ON THE HOURGLASS SEA.

Some items of note:

Beck's Italian Gardens pictures are flat out gorgeous. Their visual beauty, to my eye and sensibilities, derives from the fact that I could immediately identify that the pictures / prints were made with/from film. The look is unmistakable to the trained and appreciative eye - especially so in the manner in which the beyond-dynamic-range highlight values roll off so smoothly. At $20,000 a pop, they are also BIG - they might be just the right size for the Sonnabend's gallery walls but I question their suitability for home display in all but the most palatial abodes.

The Warhol BIG SHOTS exhibit - little Polaroid 108 pictures of VIPs, aka: "big shots" - was very nice. Again, the visual look of the Polaroid prints tickles my eye and sensibilities. The big issue with these prints - $10,000-$16,000 a pop - is simply, how long will they last. No one at the gallery would venture a guess.

McDermott & McGough's Of Beauty and Being exhibit was visually eye-watering. The color prints were made using the nearly extinct tri color carbon print process. Tri color carbo prints can exhibit virtually every visual color and an unimaginable range of hue and saturation. In the case of this exhibit's prints, the color was (quite intentionally) intensely vibrant - retina- searing vibrant. Relative to the intent of the picture makers, this approach worked beautifully.

My gallery crawl, coming as it did on the heels of the Protect Your Prints workshop, revealed an interesting bit of information - there were a lot of prints displayed with no glazing and no surface protection measures of any kind employed.

All of the prints - pigmented ink on cotton rag paper mounted on white plexi with wood brace backing - in Stephenson's Light Cities (the triptych pictured above would set you back $22,500) were displayed without glazing and/or print surface protection of any kind. When I was overheard asking a gallery employee about how these prints were surface/UV protected, the gallery director nearly jumped out of her desk chair - and nearly out of her skin - and immediately and somewhat emphatically stated that the prints were strictly for exhibition. Purchased prints would have to be framed.

It would seem that some picture makers / galleries have come to the same conclusion as I have, re: print display vs. print protection - display them without glazing and leave the print protection / preservation issue of purchased prints (non-display prints) to the buyer.

That is unless you make tri color carbo prints which are rated to last at least 300-400 years. Some claim, with good reason, that carbo prints can last, literally, forever.

BTW, I've stated it before and I'll state it again - a trip to the photo gallery epicenter of the world, NYC (in general) and the Chelsea Photo District (in particular), should be at the top of any serious picture maker's "accessory" list. The opportunity to see such a wide and impressive display of pictures in one location - yes, it's a BIG location - is a unique and rewarding experience that can open your eyes to a myriad and diverse array of picture viewing and insight.

While I viewed an interesting group of exhibits in just one afternoon, I merely scratched the surface of the gallery crawling opportunities. 4-5 days of gallery crawling just might be enough to put a decent dent into the seeming endless possibilities.

single women # 7 ~ red hair waitress

Waitress / Black Iron Burger Shop ~ 540 E 5th St. - NYC • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 847 ~ black and white and color

Black bridge & building ~ Chelsea, NYC • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 846 ~ heading home

Counter patrons / Red Robin Diner ~ Binghamtom, NY • click to embiggenIt's Thursday AM and I'm getting ready to get on the road to Au Sable Forks.

My afternoon in Chelsea yesterday was very enjoyable. Saw a number of interesting exhibits and discovered some surprising print display techniques. I'll make an entry about both topics after I return home.

I have also made some good pictures which I find quite surprising inasmuch as, for some reason, I had it in my head prior to the trip that I would not be making many pictures. Don't know why that thought was in my head but it was. Interestingly, there were a number of good picturing opportunities that I did not pursue. However, there were some others that were just too good to pass up.