Monday, January 11, 2010

Sedgwick by Name



One of the many reasons I'm addicted to the print version of The New York Times is the pleasure of being surprised by the terrific photographs that unexpectedly show up, often quite randomly. (And which you would never find online.) This photograph of Edie Sedgwick was taken by Factory resident documentarian Billy Name while Warhol was filming Sedgwick's "screen test". It ran in Saturday's paper to illustrate the sorry tale of how Name's negatives have gone missing. The story was written by culture writer Randy Kennedy who is building up quite a collection of oddball stories of lost archives, forgotten artists, and other curiosities. Just type his name into the Times' website search box.

4 comments:

nina corvallo said...

such a beautiful image indeed.

Mandy said...

This is lovely.

I agree that The New York Times prints stunning photos. Their covers are usually arresting. There have been numerous times when I've stopped dead in my tracks to get a closer look at a Times cover in a newspaper stand.

I was recently treated to a tour of the Times and was amazed to see an entire room devoted to picking the front cover. It had a huge screen to view potential cover photos... Such attention to their photography is fantastic.

Federico said...

I agree about the terrific pictures that ocasionally show up, but I am always a bit turned off by the way they are presented. I find the design of the New York Times way too cluttered. The usual infatuation with the NYT magazine is another story in itself, that I am still struggling to figure out. I much prefer how visuals are dealt with in, for example, the New Yorker, where pages and pages of text are suddenly interrupted by an unexpected, arresting image. Doesn't always happen, but when it happens it hits the target. It's a beautiful way of showing photography. Their extensive photo essays, only done once in a while (which makes them really stand out), tend to be very good, as the recent series of portraits of power by Platon.

Michael W said...

Billy Name is a great photographer & artist. I'm sorry to hear this has happened to him & hope he gets a fast resolution in his favour. I hate to hear of artists being taken advantage of. He should have good people working on his behalf making deals for books and exhibitions.