A Talent to a Muse

Not every much photographed beauty becomes a muse. In fact we seem to be somewhat short of muses at the moment, at least compared to the 30s and 40s and subjects like Lee Miller, Charis Weston, Lisa Fonnsagrives, and Eleanor Callahan, not to mention the movie stars photographed by Hurrell, Bull, etc.. But if asked to identify the muses of our time I would have to pick Jessie Mann and Kate Moss.


Jessie, as most people know, came to fame as one of Sally Mann's extraordinarily striking family. Jessie has written about the pros and cons of being so much and so controversially in the public eye, but she got the bug and re-emerged a few years ago to begin a collaboration with Len Prince in which she is both the subject and co-author of the images. A show of their recent work just opened at the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta. Here is a picture that's so new it's not even in the show, but combines the best of three worlds - Mann and Prince's collaborative art direction, Prince's technical photographic skill, and the updated classical/pictorial tradition begun by mama Sally.



Kate Moss (who I'll try to refrain from writing about too often) has a presence that seems to inspire every photographer she works with to great heights. There is something inherently non-commercial in her look so that pictures of her appear more artistic than advertising or editorial, and she's never vain. Anyway, here are a 1996 Irving Penn shot and a 1994 Paolo Roverso polaroid - both coming up for sale tomorrow at Phillips in London. The Penn is estimated at $30,000 - $40,000 and the Roversi at $3,000 - $5,000 - which would certainly qualify as my steal of the week.

Weekend Video - Van Morrison & Chet Baker

In the tradition of Alec Soth's Friday Poem, here's the inaugural Weekend Video. It's Van Morrison's version of the Stephen Sondheim chestnut "Send in the Clowns". The trumpet player in the foreground is Chet Baker. It was recorded in London at Ronnie Scott's club in 1986 and turned out to be Baker's last live performance. There are two downloads of the clip on You Tube but as it's music, I chose the one with better sound and lesser picture.

The Pursuit of Happiness

The big hit of the Milton Rogovin exhibition "Buffalo" currently up at my gallery has to be this 1973 picture of Lower West Siders Johnny Lee Wines and Zeke Johnson. "It's a picture of pure happiness" said one viewer. So to spread the feeling, here are some unpublished and unseen shots of Johnny from that day.





Rogovin's shot also brings to mind another of my favorite pictures that blends happiness, romance, and a certain bashfulness. This great shot by Malick Sidibe.

Marlboro Men and Newton Women

Last Tuesday I was in London for the Christie's Photographs auction and had the chance to sit through the entire sale, something I rarely do.


There's something hypnotic and surreal about the drone of numbers, but it puts you in a good trance-like state from which to contemplate photography and the photography business. A gorgeous vintage print of Edward Steichen's "Wind Fire -Therese Duncan on the Acropolis, 1921" went for $70,000. To my mind one of his masterpieces and the steal of the sale. In today's market an extra zero would not be out of place.


Meanwhile a picture by Dieter Blum, one of the original advertising photographers for the Marlboro Men campaign estimated at $30,000 - $40,000 went for $100,000. Still nothing compared to the $1,248,000 fetched by Richard Prince's untitled appropriation - the picture currently holding the auction record for the most expensive photograph. Today's art market clearly and unequivocally believes that the conceptual trumps the literal and it seems unlikely that this perspective will ever change. But would it be interesting to do a show based on the original Marlboro images by the original photographers?



While nudes always seem to do well, Helmut Newton (about whose work I've always had mixed feelings) had an up and down day. This pair of pictures, which I think would look pretty good in a racy summer house, were also estimated at $30,000 - $40,000, but went unsold and as of now are still available.

I &hearts Sky

When I'm on the road and am asked what I do, the follow-up question is inevitably "What's your favorite photograph?". And while I should have a ready answer I'm usually stymied as I take the question very seriously. Thinking about the question in the context of this blog, I realize that the subject I've been most often drawn to is the sky. It's easy to take obvious sky pictures so people who re-invent the genre really stand out. Eliot Porter, whose cloud pictures I opened my first gallery with in 1989 was a secret sky-taker. I had seen several cloud pictures in his 1987 monograph and wrote to him in Santa Fe asking if there were more. I was graciously invited out to his studio, and there Porter pulled down box after box of cloud and sky pictures, literally hundreds of individual dye transfer prints one more beautiful than the other. He had been hoarding them for decades.


Six years later I had the chance to put up the first exhibition of Richard Misrach's Desert Canto XVIII - Skies. A series of unique 40 x 50 inch prints of western skies, the pictures were pure color abstraction that always made me think of Rothko. I remember saying at the time I could have left that show up forever and I'm sorry no De Menil came in to buy the complete set and install them in their own space. However, I did get one for myself that hangs in my home and gives me enormous pleasure.


Joel Meyerowitz's "Bay/Sky" series chronologically both predates and outlasts Sugimoto's (different but still great) horizon series although Joel is rarely given the credit. However, when he started his Cape Light work in the mid 1970s, he was really the person who set in motion the return to large format photography as well as being the first committed colorist of the '70s.


One last sky picture that has given me a great deal of pleasure is this picture by Florian Maier-Aichen. (At least I feel it's a sky picture.) A photograph of Los Angeles at night, it has been my laptop background for several years and I've never felt the slightest need to change it.

Warsaw, 1941

When I sit down and open a magazine or newspaper, there's always the hope that some unexpected gem of a picture will pop out.

This anonymous picture, taken in the Warsaw ghetto in 1941 just appeared in the New York Times book review section and I think it would be hard to find a more powerful image. The expressions of the man and boy, their clothing, the unusual composition of the figures in relation to each other as well as to the receding street and the figures behind them combine with our premonition of their fate.

How did the photographer manage to take this picture? What did he say to the subjects? They’ve obviously consented to be photographed but they seem far away from the experience.

The picture uses a compositional device that four of my favorite photographers - August Sander, Richard Avedon, Alex Soth, and now - The Sartorialist – often use, viewing the full figure but from a distance, the subject weighted towards the bottom, often against a diagonally receding ground. Is it just me or does it seem to work every time?

To Whom it May Concern

This blog was inspired by such blogs as Conscientious, The Sartorialist, and Alec Soth's late and much lamented blog (although it's still up so you can read back posts).

It's about a love of photography and the pleasure I get from finding good pictures. The photograph above is by Alfred Eisenstadt of himself, his first wife, and his camera - the last of which turned out to be his greatest love.