Fair Weather

Thursday started off with a visit to Photo Miami.

First pictures to make an impression were by the young California photographer Alex Trager and her faux voyeuristic images (above and below).




Miklos Gaal's pictures, while hard to see here, employ a highly selective focus that makes every scene seem unreal and have looked interesting for two years running now.


Two great pieces by Robert Polidori.

Needless to say there was lots of Asian photography this year, much of it heavily reliant on photoshop and of mixed success. This is one of the better images by Cui Xiuwen.


Wout Berger creates original still lives in nature.

John Divola's cars were pretty and mysterious.

Then it was off to AIPAD Miami.

This unusual August Sander portrait of a child was one of my favorites of the whole day.


Luis Gonzalez Palma showed both old work and this new color piece (above).

I like Michael Wolf's portraits of Chinese copy painters.

Bob Dylan was much in evidence with different pictures at many booths. This 1966 picture by Daniel Kramer.

An untitled John Divola.


A David Hockney polaroid at Keith DeLellis with a great accompanying card to Heny Geldzahler postmarked 1976. (It says "Swimming pools are such marvelous subjects don't you think?")

Shinuchi Maruyam (at Bruce Silverstein) gets interesting results manipulating liquids in his own studio.

This by the great colorist Martin Parr.

How to match the artist with the work. (Robert Glenn Ketchum.)

A remembrance of times past.


At NADA, Matthew Spiegelman had an interesting selection of pictures.



Walead Beshty made photograms by folding the paper and exposing different sides to different light.


Matt Ducklo's strange images are of actual "Touch Tours", organized for the visually impaired by different museums.


Kate was in the house. The above installation piece by Nico Vascellari is titled "I Kate You" and consisted of neatly organized sheafs of K.M. clippings in plastic folders inside frames.

An My-Le's new series records the American navy's protection of Gulf oil platforms.




Melanie Schiff - that's her in the bottom picture - was a standout and has apparently already been tapped for the next Whitney biennial.



The bargains of the fair were Mark Borthwick polaroids selling for $60 each to benefit the Journal.


Meanwhile at Art Miami, the Starns were showing large new work.

An unusually small and delicate (given the subject matter) Thomas Ruff.

Ruud Van Empel's pictures still look fresh.

Meanwhile many photographers are working with the same selective focus as Miklos Gaal. Here a print of a Japanese race track by Naoki Honjo.

A particularly good Massimo Vitale.


Lastly, lenticular photography - usually a gimmick - finds an appropriate subject and usage in this commentary on the vanishing presence of native americans. As you walk past the image, Edward Curtis's subjects appear and disappear before your eyes.