Line and Form

So often when people are observing the change of seasons we get the same sky/horizon/ground composition with the straight line of the horizon dissecting the picture plane. Paul Octavious, however, had the originality to see that the curve of a hill had a novel and dynamic effect, and so in his series "Same Hill, Different Day" we are treated to a refreshing sight. As Octavious explains on his website:

For the past 2 years I have visited a beautiful mound of earth that I have come to call "the hill." Each time I have come to the hill a new story is told to me as if the hill is my stage and the locals are the actors in this daily play.

Nice job!

Likewise - James Reeve, who is one of the exhibitors in the forthcoming Hyeres Photo Festival, has refreshed the night landscape genre by covering so many different locales. I haven't seen the prints yet, but the j-pegs look beautiful. More by Reeve can be seen here and below.

La Rouviere, Marseille

Las Vegas

Beirut

Gulf of Thailand

Albert Bridge, London

Greetings from Punta de Mita

Turns out this is the only place outside of the Galapagos where you can find the blue-footed boobie. Who knew?!

And on that Darwinian note, I'm taking a break for the rest of the week. But thank you for all your responses to the wheelie story. Always good to know someone's reading.

A Travel Advisory and a Travel Tale

The Four Seasons in Punta De Mita.

The day after AIPAD, I headed south to Punta De Mita, Mexico, to join my family on spring break. (And now I sit blogging by the pool.) But getting here was no fun. Because of the current runway work going on at JFK, the delays have backed up all the way to LaGuardia and my wait in the security line at the Delta terminal at LaG was one hour and five minutes! So New York travelers beware. (See below.)

On a very different travel-related tack, a friend recently told me a true story about a passionate romance that recently took place between two Americans abroad. She was an artist and he was a banker, sparks flew, days and nights were spent in the rapture of new love. They agreed to meet several weeks later at some romantic island and the woman got there first. Would the man make it as promised? Would the sparks still fly? Waiting inside the lobby of the hotel she finally saw him come through the doors pulling a wheelie bag. And in that instant the dream shattered. She knew she could never love a man with a wheelie bag.

People seem to take different sides on this story. Either she was right and he was an un-macho fuddy duddy not suitable for our passionate life-embracing artist. Or she was a fickle neurotic clearly not capable of a relationship of any depth. What do you think?

I’m simply here to sing the praises of this wheelie backpack that was once my son’s that I’ve started to take on planes with me stuffed with computer, magazines, etc., and remark on how effortless it was to stand in line for the hour and five minutes pushing this along rather than to be carrying or picking up and putting down whatever wheel-less carry-on I might have had before. Viva el wheelie!

AIPAD - Aisles 1,2, & 3.

Tod Papageorge. Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus at MoMA. 1974. At Deborah Bell.

Unfortunately now a retrospective look, but as promised, here is my finished round-up of some of the many highlights of last week's AIPAD Art Fair.

Up for a second year at Joel Sorroka but still just as good - Robert Frank's 1955 shot of salesmen at a Cadillac showroom.

Also previously remarked on in this blog - Helen Levitt's 1988 New York image. At Robert Klein.

Two pictures at Bonni Benrubi - the humorously titled "Mount Fujii" by Massimo Vitale.

And Matthew Pillsbury's shot from London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

Robert Kennedy on the campaign trail by Bill Eppridge at Monroe Gallery.

Also at Monroe, this impressive composite of Washington Square, going from day into night by Stephen Wilkes.

Above and below, two prints made from autochromes from the National Geographic archives at Steven Kasher.

And truly one of the highlights of the fair for me, three variants of Frederick Sommer's iconic "Livia". The two cropped prints came from the sitter herself.

And quite a curiosity - two photographs of silhouettes of none other than Stieglitz and Steichen. Photos by John Barrett Kerfoot, but prints signed by the sitters.

Twiggy, 1966 by Barry Lategan. At Peter Fetterman.

Also at Fetterman, Lillian Bassman's "Fantasy on the Dance Floor. Barbara Mullen, Paris, 1949.

Another picture I never tire of. Flor Garduno at Throckmorton Fine Art.

I liked these two so much I bought them myself! A rare vintage D-Day landing not by Capa, and a vintage NASA "Moonwalk". At Joseph Tartt.

At this point I'm afraid I was losing track of where I saw things, but I liked this picture of Ansel Adams at The California School of Fine Arts. The photographer, William Heick later got Adams to sign the mount.

Another great Winogrand - "Circle Line Ferry, 1971."

At Julie Saul, two handcut c-prints by Soo Kim make a novel collage.

"Guatemala, 1967." by Brett Weston at Scott Nichols.

The always sprightly Lartigue at Hyperion Press.

Carleton Watkins at Andrew Smith.

And last but certainly not least, Frederick Sommer's mysterious "Circumnavigation of the Blood" at Stephen Daiter Gallery.

Weekend Video

It's been hectic at AIPAD and given the time it takes to post dozens of photos I ask for your indulgence, In the meantime, here's a song that blew me away - "How You Like Me Now" by The Heavy as seen on David Letterman. (I particularly like the enthusiasm with which Dave greets the lead singer at the end and gets him to reprise the performance.)

Aisle 4

Philippe Petit on his return across the wire. World Trade Center. August 7, 1984. By Jean Louis Blondeau. At Stephen Bulger.

I only had time to check out the aisle my booth is in, so I will do the other three aisles next. But for now, here are my ten favorite pictures from Aisle 4.

Showing how vivid a 19th century photograph can be - Edouard-Denis Baldus. Saint-Etienne de Caen at Gallery 19/21.

A compositionally stunning Josef Koudelka, "Ireland on St. Patrick's Day" at The Czech Center of Photography.

A cabinet of rare Japanese photo books at the always interesting Harper's Books.

A tiny Helmut Newton polaroid from Photology Gallery's display of various polaroids.

At Keith DeLellis, a Weegee of Limelight Gallery, often credit as the first photo gallery in New York.

At Joseph Bellows, this mammoth book of aerial photographs by Michael Light.

Also at Bellows, this 1977 photograph by Randal Levenson - "Stripper, Murphy Brothers Shows, Fargo, North Dakota". You've got to love a happy stripper!

This unusual almost snapshot picture by Dorothea Lange at Michael Shapiro.

And lastly, one of an interesting group of topographical pictures of the mid-west by Rhondal McKinney at PDNB Gallery.