Besides having the pleasure of seeing Bruce again at the end of my time at AIPAD, I also enjoyed the pleasure of seeing more photographs than anyone can possible absorb in one day.
I lost the pencil I had hoped to jot notes on, but my casual survey of the show revealed that monolithic color work has not taken over the world. Yes, there were some huge prints both color and monochrome (Chip Hooper's stuff was H U G E!!), but there was vastly more interesting work of reasonable scale. Black and white isn't dead either....it's thriving and was present in abundance.
There were some remarkable and unusual photographs to be seen. Robert Glenn Ketchum makes wonderful color prints (and is a formidable advocate for ecological sanity), but also has his work "translated" into large silk textiles that are mounted in free standing wooden frames. There were some contemporary daguerreotypes that were mounted in a box-like setting by Patrick Bailly-Maitre-Grand that were intriguing. There were also some vintage daguerreotypes along with beautifully preserved antique photographs of many authors as is typical in these shows. My favorite was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln taken by a mammoth camera in the 1860's and printed in the 1890's that was as vivid as any that could be made today. It was, I think an 11x14 or larger contact print in superb condition. For a change, many of the large color works I saw (or at least the ones I paid attention to) were NOT ironic, nor celebrations of the banal and the repugnant, nor desaturated and "anti-Velvia" artifacts. Though, in reviewing the catalog, it's apparent that there were some of the aforementioned that I "missed". And MAS and Paula Chamlee have turned some kind of corner with their photography. It was remarkable that there were any to be seen in the first place since they didn't used to sell through dealers, but now they're making large platinum prints on (in Chamlee's case) Japanese rice paper....and I can't believe I'm writing this...with a digi step in there someplace. I'm not sure of the details, but it was like hearing a rabbi pray to Jesus.
As to matting and framing, anything goes! Though black, wood frames still dominate, white (John Szarkowski, Michael Kenna etc.) frames made a strong showing as well. There were platinum color metal, aluminum, silver, brown wood, and no-frame frames that generally complimented the work they embraced. (Only three gold colored metal frames of one photographer did I see, and they were a terrible choice for his work.) I got no sense of a dominant mat style. For instance, while Szarkowski's prints were corner mounted in mats that covered their edges, Kenna's dry-mounted prints were float mounted with a large "moat" around them. If one came to the show hoping to be educated in the "best" way to present one's work, the only lesson to learn was to make your work look good....anyway you choose to.
And now my favorites! Kenna's, and Szarkowski's photographs of course. They were wonderful. A Koichira Kurita print I'd never seen before blew me away (I love all the work of his I've ever seen anyway). Some larger platinum prints of Ryuijie were stunning. I sifted through a group of Rolf Horne's photographs that I'd never seen in person before. Bill Schwab's portfolio was wonderful as always (and it was nice to speak to Thomas Halsted...nice guy). And there must be a number of others I'll wake up tonight remembering that I'm sure I'm omitting, but I'm tired and ......zzzzzzz. :rolleyes:
If you've taken the time to read all this, make the effort to get yourself to an AIPAD show next year. I think there are two other American locations that host them, but I'm not sure where or when they're held. If AIPAD were chocolate, I'd have gained 35 pounds today. Since it isn't, it's a healthy fix for your photography habit!
