Masked

It never ceases to amaze me how certain themes miraculously present themselves. Last week this card (above) arrived from Phillips auction house promoting their upcoming London sale, followed the next day by the catalog itself. The day after I was browsing in Rizzoli's bookstore and two different books on display presented photographs of masked women. They were both striking pictures so I snapped them on my iPhone and filed them in the back of my mind. This weekend I was in the gallery organizing j-pegs of some of the pictures in my collection and noticed that there were two mask pictures - an Arbus and an Elliott Erwitt. Finally I was looking up Adam Fuss on Artnet and discovered an entire series he had done on masks that I had never seen before!

If you were to ask me what my least favorite subjects for photographs are, I would say without hesitation: clowns and mimes. So you would think masks would be next in line, but there's something different and intriguing about masks - the play of concealment and revelation, the graphic boldness of the shape, the power they bestow on the wearer. The depiction and use of masks goes back as far as the cave paintings of Lascaux so there's something inherent in the human character that compels us to use masks. The making of elaborate masks was a vital part of Greek, Roman, African, Japanese and Chinese culture. Not so surprisingly, in America masks seems to have more sporting than cultural associations. Think catcher's mask, goalie mask, football helmets, etc.. I can't think of another country whose sports need more protection. The Canadian artist Brian Jungen made an enormous art world splash a few years ago with masks made entirely out of reconstituted Nike Air Jordans, tying together a critique of consumerism and the co-opting of native culture with the creation of compelling and original new works.

To finish off this mask round-up, I Just saw Iron Man which was as good as I hoped it would be and the metallic armor and mask the Robert Downey character creates is probably the best made superhero outfit ever. (Subject for debate?) In addition I pulled out a few of my other favorite mask pictures.

Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinez Matoodhin from The Phillips catalog

Peter Lindbergh

Albert Watson

Irving Penn

Diane Arbus

Robert Capa

Elliott Erwitt. Candice Bergen at Truman Capote's Black and White Ball.

E.J. Bellocq

An Adam Fuss photogram

Brian Jungen

Ironman

P.S.

A few hours after posting this mask story, I received the following comment:

While I agree that the image is powerful and beautiful; and I appreciate your discussion on masks and its socio-cultural context. There is an additional angle an image like this brings up - that is the "black face" of minstrels in America of not too long passed. This is just another context for this image, not a critique. To think about image is to understand it many meanings in a multicultural world.

I think the writer makes an extremely valid point and my only response was to agree, and also to point out that because of the hair and make-up etc., I saw the image only as a fashion update of the baroque use of masks in balls, opera, commedia, etc., similar to the styling of the masked ball scene in Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette". (See below.) The important lesson to me, though, is never to underestimate the different ways in which an image can be interpreted and to make clear no offense was intended.

Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst in "Marie Antoinette"

Weekend Video - The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes are a Danish rock duo whose music is characterized
by two-part vocal harmonies inspired by early American pop coupled with hard-edged, distortion overlaid, electric guitar. Their songs juxtapose the structural simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with an intense blown-out sound, driving beats, and dark lyrical content similar to The Velvet Underground. "We are not scared of being blunt about what the references are in our music," says vocalist Sharin Foo. "For instance, if you look at our name, The Raveonettes, it's a complete direct reference to The Ronettes and Buddy Holly Rave On!" They’ve even had Ronnie Spector (lead singer of the Ronettes) guest on one of their recent albums.

I first heard their music on WFUV's "World Café" two nights ago and was mesmerized by the song “The Beat Dies” based on Angelo Badalamenti’s theme music for the t.v. mini-series Twin Peaks. For anyone who remembers that show and the music, this song connects straight to the subconscious. (On the radio Foo decribed it as burlesque meets rock and you can hear the bump and grind drum beat at the opening of the song.)

The sound quality is pretty bad on all the video clips available, in fact almost unlistenable, so this is more of a trailer to encourage you to go to iTunes and download the song, although be warned - the sound is somewhat murky on the album too. But I do really like the song and the color and unintentional verité feel of the film. I think the image that illustrates the clip (above) is pretty cool too - and even cooler for being randomly generated by YouTube.

Also below, a short clip of Sune Wagner and Sharin Foo talking about the song.

More Freedom

Catherine Burks

Many thanks to those who e-mailed with additional information on the Freedom Riders pictures. As Eric Etheridge pointed out in his e-mail, “I think the Mississippi Freedom Rider mugshots are a great addition to the Civil Rights visual record, especially given their provenance (they were collected and filed by the state agency dedicated to thwarting the Civil Rights movement.)”

And thanks to Frank Ezelle for providing the correct link (it’s hard to find) to where the The Mississippi Department of Archives and History keeps the full visual record of these mugshots.

I have made another selection of some of the pictures I felt were the most interesting as I can't keep from feeling what a beautiful portrait of America they make!

Finally, for those interested in attending the book launch for Eric Etheridge’s book Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, it will be at the Steven Kasher Gallery at 521 West 23rd Street, New York City. Wednesday, May 21. 6 – 8 pm.

Stokely Carmichael

C.T. Vivian

Jane Rosett

Jean Thompson

Charles Myers

Clarence White

Gwendolyn Green

Joan Trumpower

Mark Lane

Geraldine Edwards

Albert Lassiter

Jorgia Siegel

Reverend Grant Harland

Rita Carter

Jessie James Davis

John Lowry

Karen Kytle

Leo Blue

Alluring Images

Lisa Kereszy

From cherry blossoms to civil rights mugshots to photographs of the female figure. I know it’s sometimes a leap, but that’s what this blog was always intended to be – an appreciation of the kaleidoscopic breadth of photography that I am lucky to engage with in my daily life.

The pictures above and below are from a benefit auction I helped ALLURE Magazine curate, all proceeds of which go to fund skin cancer research. Nadine McCarthy, ALLURE’s Director of Photography worked with me on their end. The theme, based on the magazine’s May issue, is “Alluring Bodies”. The auction takes place tonight.

Above and below are a number of my favorites from the 60 pictures being auctioned. And no, I do not think these pictures objectify women in an inappropriate way. And yes, that is Carla Bruni, the first lady of France, at the end. (Last month the first nude picture of her to come up at auction since she married President Sarkozy sold at Christies for over $90,000 to a Chinese collector! And once the picture began to garner an undue amount of publicity the seller gave the entire proceeds to charity.)

Lillian Bassman

Michael Dweck

Flor Garduno

Susan Meiselas

Fernand Fonssagrives

Juergen Teller

Jeff Hornbaker

Craig McDean

A unique collaboration by Edward Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith

Annie Leibovitz

Regan Cameron

Pamela Hanson

Freedom Riders

Fred Clark

We are so used to seeing mugshots of intoxicated celebrities it’s easy to forget that this type of picture can have a more serious police purpose – or as is the case in the pictures above and below – can be a visual record not of justice served but of massive injustice.

These mugshots were taken of the Freedom Riders arrested by the local police in Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1961. The men and women pictured had boarded buses in Washington and were heading through the deep South to challenge states who were upholding Jim Crow laws and flouting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting segregation on public transport. They were met by violence at almost every stop and after one of the buses was firebombed outside of Alliston, Alabama, CORE leadership wanted to call off the rides. However, an undaunted (and integrated) group of protesters continued to Mississippi where they were arrested and jailed. Far from being intimidated, their example encouraged even more civil rights workers to head south, and before long Jackson’s jails were bursting.

While it would take considerably longer for the situation to improve even slightly, if you want to see what dignity and courage look like – these pictures say it all. You can only be awed by the courage displayed by people who had every right to fear that their lives were in danger, but whose moral certitude allowed them to stare down a police photo- grapher, hold their head up, and in the case of Helen Singleton even allow a knowing smile to cross her face. (She just knew that history would prove her right.)

Celebrating these heroes, the photographer Eric Etheridge has just published a remarkable book Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, in which he tracked down over 70 of the former Freedom Riders, took their portraits and recorded their stories. His contemporary portraits appear alongside many of the original mugshots, and as you can see in the very last picture, Helen Singleton has lost none of her twinkle!

Helen Singleton

Robert Singleton

Richard Steward

Helen Singleton by Eric Etheridge

Thinking Pink

Here's a promise: this will be the last post on cherry blossoms for at least a year! However, biking through Central Park this weekend with camera in pocket, this tree was hard to resist. To me the most resonant moment of the cherry blossom cycle is when the petals fall and the grass is carpeted in pink before the petals start to turn brown. I was initially the only person photographing here, but as the picture shows, within minutes it became a hot location and I realized that pictures of people taking pictures of other people underneath the cherry blossoms was a lot more interesting than the blossoms themselves. It helps to click and see this picture in a larger size, but I love the matched pair posing demurely in the middle with their faces obscured and the guy on his back behind them. However, I'm well aware that this is more of a "snap" than a "photograph" in the artistic sense of the word.

To see what I mean by this, you just have to go to Tod Papageorge's recently published book. Passing Through Eden, a collection of pictures he took in Central Park from the 1970s to the 1990s. It's a book that is at once documentary, sensuous, and allegorical. Revelatory both because Papageorge who heads Yale's graduate photo program has been famously absent from the exhibition world and because the pictures are so good. As well as being decisively and artfully composed every one of Papageorge's photographs hint at more complex narratives underneath and all have a certain psychological intensity and edge.

Papageorge has said, “One of my attractions to photography was that I felt it was much closer to writing and literature than any other visual art.” which helps explain why he stuck to black and white photography while his peers made the move into color. More importantly, like writing, his work seems to be where the outside world and the inner voice meet and even the most random moments are brought together into some kind of highly personal order.

From Passing Through Eden:

P.S.
After looking at all these Tod Papageorge pictures, would my picture be improved by a tighter crop?

Weekend Video - Dylan Tribute

I’ve been holding on to this video for a while not quite sure what to do with it. It’s a tribute clip to the Dylan song “Make You Feel My Love” from SoniaGS of Spain, who's posted 115 videos over the last year, mostly Dylan tributes. You have to admire that kind of devotion! Other than the song, which I love, I just like the combination of homey film-making mixed with a drifting Bruce Weber-y camera quality. A lazy kind of pre-summer video for a grey weekend.