Art Photo Collector

“I hadn’t even thought about prostitution until I walked into a brothel. I was probably very naive, which actually in retrospect did me a favour.” —Jane Hilton 

The British photographer, Jane Hilton, has spent more than fifteen years getting to know “working girls” in Nevada. Commissioned by the BBC in 2000 for a series titled, “The Brothel/Love for Sale,” she completed ten documentaries about brothels, their workers, and the “johns” that frequent them. Hilton’s sensitive attention to her subjects, and the relationships she developed with them, are what sets her photographs apart. Given her choice to use a plate camera, these portraits are collaborations, and the women who sit for them, her patient friends.

Hilton’s latest show, Precious, opens today at Nailya Alexander Gallery here in New York. The accompanying monograph will be published later this month. 

Whether these images “challenge” notions about prostitution and societal taboos is anyone’s guess. What is important, however, is the artist’s intent. As Hilton puts it, “I know there are some incredible women hidden in these brothels and I wanted to show this.” Good enough for me. —Lane Nevares

“A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see.” —Roland Barthes

The Beijing-based artist, Liu Bolin, often known as “The Invisible Man,” creates works of art that operate on many levels. Part painting, photography, conceptual art and multi-faceted social critique, Bolin’s work is testament to his courage and determination to create work despite the cultural and political constraints he lives under.

In a recent TED talk, Bolin discussed his ideas and the motivations behind his work. His exploration of becoming “invisible” is a means to provoke ideas and for us to question the “inter-canceling relationship between our civilization and its development.” Needless to say, his arresting images are impressive to behold and painstakingly executed.

For an opportunity to meet the artist and to see his latest solo show, Liu Bolin: Mask, Eli Klein Fine Art is hosting an opening and reception tomorrow evening here in New York. Hopefully, Liu Bolin won’t be too hard to find. —Lane Nevares

“Art is the splendor of reality before everything has become meaning.” —Frederick Sommer

As part of the 2013 PhotoEspaña Festival commencing next week, the Mapfre Foundation is hosting the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the distinguished American photographer, Emmet Gowin. The exhibit, opening today, spans Gowin’s career from the 1960’s to today, includes some 180 works, and will be his first museum show in Spain. It’s good to see Gowin’s work being internationally recognized. A teacher and mentor to many, Gowin’s influence and importance in Photography should be noted.

For the past 15 years PhotoEspaña has been one of the most important art festivals in Europe. More than 700,000 individuals attend each year, and judging from the caliber of this year’s official selection, attendance will be high. Get your calendars ready, whether in Madrid, Belfast, Copenhagen, Krakow, or Sydney, the international summer Photo Festival season is underway and shaping up nicely. —Lane Nevares

“When you set up pictures, you’re not at any risk. Reality involves chance and risk and diving for pearls.”—Nan Goldin

Fifty years ago, during a tumultuous 1963, Constantine Manos joined Magnum Photos. Reared in South Carolina to Greek immigrant parents, he has for over 60 years taken photographs that are about light, shadow and what can be revealed in a moment. His pioneering work in color, and recognized expertise with a Leica, still capture our attention.

The Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale’s latest show, Florida Color, mines work from Manos’s “American Color” series. While this work has already received wide acclaim, I wonder what Floridians make of seeing images of their compatriots inside a museum. Are they a mirror or a window? —Lane Nevares

“In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses — as artist, as Moroccan, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim.  In short, I invite viewers to resist stereotypes.”—Lalla Essaydi

The work of Lalla Essaydi reminds me why I love photography. Sumptuous, complex, referential and captivating, her images seek the sublime. Underlying this aspiration for a transcendent beauty is a rich intellectual foundation that Essaydi eloquently explores in her writing. To appreciate the depth of her art is to read her statement. 

These large-scale works from her series “Harem Revisited” and “Bullets Revisited” will go on display tomorrow at Edwynn Houk Gallery in NYC. What we see online cannot reveal the elaborate detail in the intricate (and time consuming) henna calligraphy applied to her models, nor can it reveal the details in her staged sets. The photographs online, however, can lure us into reshaping our ideas of women, Arab culture and what photography can do. Join Lalla Essaydi on this journey. —Lane Nevares

“There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”—Homer

Like others before and those to follow, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein would only become well known posthumously. Acknowledged primarily for eroticized and surrealistic photographs of his beloved wife and muse, Marie, he also painted, sculpted, collected plants and fancied himself to be an architect and philosopher too.

Although ambition fueled Von Bruenchenhein’s artistic drive, alas, during his lifetime, he never made it as an artist. His work never found an audience, he was never featured in a gallery, and he never sold a piece. He worked in a bakery, retired early because of health problems, and scraped by on Social Security at $220 a month. And yet, he never stopped creating.

I urge you to explore the work and life of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. There will always be hipsters, poseurs, and wannabes seeking attention for their art, but it is those who dig deep and fearlessly whose work will eventually find its way.—Lane Nevares

“We are drowning in images. Photography is used as a propaganda tool, which serves to sell products and ideas. I use the same approach to show aspects to reality.” —Martin Parr 

Just in time for summer, the noted British, Magnum photographer, Martin Parr’s, latest exhibit, Life’s a Beach, opens tomorrow at Aperture Gallery here in NYC. Mr. Parr, who enjoys immense popularity and recognition, has done much for Photography. In addition to his signature work, he’s a lecturer, collector, filmmaker, and all around disciple for the medium.

Parr’s work has always had its detractors asking whether he is taking the piss and exploiting the public for his own amusement and needs, or whether he is a serious artist revealing ourselves through color, composition and fill flash. Like most things, I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Martin Parr is doing things his own way.

“Life’s a Beach” is a color parade around the world. Parr’s keen interest in beaches (although not a sun bunny himself) and people takes us from the shores of India to Latvia to Thailand to Mexico and onwards, transforming banal scenes into ironic, humorous, curious and sometimes dispiriting riffs on people at the beach. It’s all classic Martin Parr.

In addition to the show, which will be a crowd-pleaser, there’s also a new mini-edition of the monograph available, as well as a video of Parr presenting the book. All great stuff. Martin Parr once signed my notebook not with his name alone, but rather inscribing,”Martin Parr was here.” Indeed, the same holds true for his images. —Lane Nevares 

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”—Edgar Degas

The exhibit, About Face, opened last May at Pier 24 Photography in San Francisco. The sheer breadth of the show, focusing on portraiture and featuring more than one-thousand photographs from the Pilara Foundation and other collections, is astonishing.  And, after eleven and half months on display, will sadly end next week.

For anyone in the Bay area or passing through, mark your calendars and treat yourselves to an exceptional experience before it ends. Pier 24 Photography is a place to view and think about photography. Unlike other venues, one must first schedule a free appointment online. This controls the volume of visitors and allows everyone to have the time and space to quietly contemplate the work on view. There are no labels on the walls and the lighting is perfect. Every consideration is made to present the work at its best.

“About Face” broadly embraces the history and possibilities of portrait photography in its myriad forms. From the mid-nineteenth century to today, this wide-ranging, extensive and important collection offers a superlative opportunity to see master works, contemporary marvels and everything in between in one of photography’s finest institutions. Remarkable. —Lane Nevares

“I do not mistrust reality, of which I know next to nothing, but I am suspicious regarding the image of reality which our senses convey to us, and which is incomplete and limited. Our eyes have developed such as to survive. It is merely coincidence that we can see stars with them as well.”—Gerhard Richter

Luigi Ghirri, who passed away in 1992, was many things in his 49 years: a writer, curator, land surveyor, photographer, and conceptual artist. It is through his color photography that he is best known. His 1978 self-published monograph, Kodachrome, has influenced numerous artists and was re-printed to great acclaim last November. Currently (and for the first time in the United States), the accompanying exhibit of 25 vintage works is on display at Matthew Marks in NYC. 

Ghirri pursued his philosophical ideas using photography as a medium for deciphering form and meaning. His cool, smooth, Kodachrome view of the world is an attempt to mine significance from the signs surrounding us. Engaging with his work is to join him in grappling with universal questions of identity, place, and reality. Are his photographs, then, aspirations for some cathartic truth? Don’t let the ironic, understated images fool you, Luigi Ghirri is enjoining us to think deeply and critically about what we see and know. —Lane Nevares

“We tremble at the feelings we experience as our sense of wholeness is reorganized by what we see.”—Emmet Gowin

The Finnish-born photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen is once again garnering the attention she merits. Experiencing something of a notoriety renaissance for her “Byker” series beginning in the late 60’s (currently on view at L. Parker Stephenson Photographs until May 11th), it’s exciting to see Ms. Konttinen reaching new audiences. 

Konttinen’s images, taken within the communities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, sought to capture the humor and dignity of working-class Geordie culture as they, like other poor neighborhoods in the north of England, saw their homes devastated by developers keen to tear down the “slums” and replace them with architectural and planning fantasies that bore no connection to the people actually living there. Konttinen and friends, as part of the the still extant Amber Collective, lived in Byker from 1969-76 and documented the impact over a ten year period until 1980. These photographs should, therefore, be understood for their political and social undertones.

Aside from their didactic message, Konttinen’s images possess the power of intimacy and connection. The wonderful compositions and tonal ranges add to their beauty; however, it is the emotive energy in the images that sets them apart. I, for one, feel the love. —Lane Nevares

“A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex, more obvious and more profound.” —Charles Baudelaire 

The 33rd edition of the New York AIPAD Photography Show kicks off on April 4th. For collectors and enthusiasts, this is a superlative opportunity to see the finest work going on in photography. More than 80 galleries and dealers worldwide are represented, including Brooklyn-based gallery, Klompching, who will be exhibiting for the first time. Their current show “Conflict and Costume,” by photographer Jim Naughten, features striking portraits of members from the Herero tribe of Namibia. Against the backdrop of the southwestern African landscape, we see Herero history carefully revealed through a conflation of fashion. Naughten’s use of strong flash lighting under a bright sun gives the portraits an added boost—colors burst and skin shines. 

The AIPAD show, events and talks continue through April 7th. Mark your calendars and treat yourself to one of the best chances of the year to see (and buy) an impressive array of work from all over the world, from historical to contemporary and everything in between. See you there. —Lane Nevares 

“I believe the power of seeing the world as fresh and strange lies hidden in every human being.”—Bill Brandt (b.1904-d.1983)

Bill Brandt is rightly regarded as one of the most important photographers of the 20th Century. On the 6th, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened a major exhibit, ”Bill Brandt: Shadow & Light,” as an opportunity for us to reevaluate Brandt’s legacy and to retrace his artistic journey.

More than 150 works are divided into six distinct sections, offering a tight and cohesive survey of Brandt’s artistic development: including his work in WWII London, Northern England, landscapes, portraits and of course his famed nudes. Many of the prints in the exhibition are stunning to behold, the best of their kind, and reveal the work of a superb craftsman. The opportunity to see these prints, first-hand, is a must for anyone who appreciates Brandt’s work.

Along with MoMA’s adjacent (and excellent) exhibit “The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook,” there’s no finer way to spend an afternoon in the city enveloped in a “sense of wonder.” —Lane Nevares

“Beauty is a term that is always in development, it’s not a fixed thing and is very much subjective, so to me, it’s a perception.” Erwin Olaf   

“It all begins with a dream,” Erwin Olaf told a group of us last Saturday. His latest show, Berlin, currently on view in NYC at Hasted Kraeutler and in London at Hamiltons Gallery is true to form for Olaf: sumptuous images layered with narrative, rich with details, and perfectly executed.

Using his dreams as surrealistic launching points, Olaf described his process of finding themes, unifying them, and working with his design team to bring them to fruition. This latest series, Berlin, took him outside of his Amsterdam studio and into a city steeped in history, where he could shoot his tableaux inside noted buildings, some of which have notorious histories. (Indeed, the stairs Olaf climbs in his self-portrait are the same that Hitler mounted into the Olympic Stadium.) These particular interiors, and the tales they contain, become part of the new story. Olaf’s Berlin series takes us into an enigmatic world where no one is telling us what to believe, but rather engaging us to conjure these stories ourselves. —Lane Nevares 

“They were … pure and unadulterated photographs, and sometimes they hinted at the existence of visual truths that had escaped all other systems of detection.”—John Szarkowski

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has recently opened, for the first time in 25 years, a major retrospective of the singular American photographer, Garry Winogrand. This is a big deal. The exhibit, organized and curated in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art, will later travel to DC and then on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this summer. Given Winogrand’s importance in the history of 20th Century photography, this will be one of the major shows of 2013.

Professional photographers, long before the days of digital, have always burned through rolls of film, snapping thousands and thousands of images. Winogrand was no exception. When he passed in 1984, he left behind dozens of marked-up proof sheets and more than 6,500 rolls of undeveloped film containing more than 250,000 images. What makes this retrospective particularly important is that nearly a third of the images in the show have never been printed or exhibited, creating a renewed and exciting opportunity to take a greater in-depth look at Winogrand’s legacy. 

The forthcoming monograph to accompany the exhibit will also provide scholars and enthusiasts with a comprehensive resource for examining his importance and lasting influence on photography. Winogrand forever changed how photographers see, but it’s also worth noting that he expanded the possibilities of what happens in the frame. —Lane Nevares

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Anaïs Nin 

Plying the seas of layered meanings and interpretations, El Museo’s lastest exhibit, superreal, asks us to reconsider what is “real” in photography and video art. The exhibit takes us into a world as varied and complex as the forty-two artists represented. 

While major figures like Miguel Rio Branco, Andres Serrano, and Vik Muniz are included, it is the younger and lesser known artists like Las Hermanas Iglesias that give the show its sparkle. Their series, Nude Suits, created during an artist residency in Tasmania, reminded me how art can be both fun and serious. These hand-knit suits (made by their mother no less) undermine the typical nude photograph while asking us to rethink the nude in nature. Their performance isn’t groundbreaking, but it does engage us to question and wonder. And isn’t that the point?

Superreal is on view until May 19th. With such a marvelous collection of talent on display, head uptown and decide for yourself what’s real, unreal, or superreal. —Lane Nevares