We went to see the Callahan show of about 50 pictures at the MFA yesterday.  It was a perfect way to close out (visually) 2009.  Becky suggested that Callahan had quite an influence on my work: GUILTY.  A couple of pictures stood out: a woman on the street in Chicago in a very light green coat and hat probably from the early 50s; a four panel grid of tree limbs looking up form Atlanta in 1993.  Marvelous pictures.  Yes, Harry was (remains) quite an influence.

I was a tad reluctant to go to the Met Wednesday; haven’t we seen enough of The Americans already?  I had never seen its entirety as an exhibition with some rather large prints laid out as in the book through 5 or 6 rooms.  I have to say the sequence had never read as clearly nor as succinctly as it does that way.  The Americans is truly a book in my mind, but having known the work for 40 years it remains brilliant, ground-breaking, and formative for me and my photography.  There were always some pictures that were less resonant, particularly from the Montana timeframe, but yesterday I was completely satisfied.  Furthermore the art of sequencing photographs (which I have be long steeped in-thanks, Nathan-makes the meanings deeper and more satisfying.  I learned some stuff, yet again.  Happy Thanksgiving.

for the second time in 34 years I spent some time at the New Topographics show at GEH.  the house has re-hung the seminal show from 1975 not in the original gallery but the adjacent one, 100 prints from the original exhibition.  Talk about a personal history of photography.  I distictly remember having a railing experience about Hank Wessel’s work for at least an hour as Paul Hester and I drove back to Providence from Rochester.  How impactful the show became when my generation began to teach the edicts of the show and then those students carried on the tradition.  My feelings have changed about the work in the show over the years and now taking a class there yeaterday heard my speaking in reverential terms about the work.  True, photography has moved along and different ideas are embraced now, and Rick Hock said “it was no big deal”,  it still remains a seminal work.  I am delighted to spen time with it.

This coming fall I will be having three concurrent exhibitions in Boston:

Panopticon Gallery in Kenmore Square at the Hotel Commonwealth will show recent Grids

September 16-November 8, 2009;

New England School of Photography in Kenmore square as well will show Extended Landscapes

August 24-October 2, 2009;

and the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA will show Suite Niagara

August 27-October 5, 2009.

An interesting show curated by Debbie Hesse and Donna Ruff about the use of social networking tools in art making.  Good tuff.

Syntax, a fine show curated by Leslie K. Brown, is an intelligent, well selected show of photographers working on the edge of the bubble using photography to often talk about photography.  Luke Strosnider has his book of New Ansel Adams Landscapes which are the histograms of famous Adams landscapes presented to be viewed as reseen landscapes, they are quite wonderful.  Benno Friedman challenges what a photograph should/might look like. These two plus seven other artists do challenge nicely.  See the show at Photographic Resource Center (PRC) is at 832 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA.

Leslie has hit her stride with this and her reecent show at the Fruitlands Museum show.  This lady is bright, inciteful and truly one to be watched, her work is of the highest order.

Bruce has his MFA Thesis show up at the Benton Museum on the UConn Campus in Storrs, CT and a fine show it is.  15 new 24×30 prints from 8×10 film of Fort Juniper made over the past six months.  The one above is a particular favorite, a strong bit of seein.  Additionally, The View Home, shown in a grid this time was shown and written about last year from his Gallery Kayafus show.  Kudos.

David Taylor has a show at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT.  The exhibition is photographs and video installations entitled Frontier/Frontera looking at the border between Mexico and the US.  A document through the eyes of a somewhat neutral but impassioned viewer of the land and the people on both sides.  Regardless of your political position, the work shows us something about us.  I was particularly taken with the video work with three multiple monitor installations.  The museum is a marvelous jewel of a pocket museum with about ten galleries of first rate current work, including Taylor’s.

Recent work (2008) of David Hilliard at Carroll & Sons Gallery at SOWA in boston is first rate.  His work continues to evolve and is beautiful to boot.

I made the pilgrimage to the Whitney for the Eggleston retro and I left feeling rewarded. The guy can sure see and has always been able to see, but in a way that challenges what photographs are supposed to look like.

In 1975 when I was finishing graduate school we did b&w or most of us did. Most everyone except Eggleston, Shore and Sternfeld. There were others of course but those three guys were the ones who gave the rest of us license. I always understood Shore and Sternfeld but my relationship with Eggleston was love/hate. He didn’t make pictures that looked like pictures we were supposed to make. He used color in a way that confounded what color had been used for. He could make dye transfer prints which of course no one could afford, but he made pictures that made you sit up and take notice. Inside of ovens, freezers for God’s sake, under beds and pictures of dogs drinking muddy water. Who made such pictures and why?

The prints at the Whitney were surprisingly dark and heavy handed. I expected to see prints done in the fashion of the way the pictures had been portrayed in reproductions. They all worked, of course, but not the look I had expected. It was a pleasure to see the work at moderate sizes, most were about 20×24 and they read well.

I left with my love/hate feelings intact although leaning more toward love than hate. There are still several (ok many) pictures that leave me wondering but then there is always a killer picture nearby. The book is a real disappointment as the reproductions are not first rate. The show is down Jan 27 so see it while you can.

In an epic undertaking, Nathan Lyons, supported by George Eastman House, Memorial Art Gallery and Visual Studies Workshop assembled, sequenced and installed 230 pictures in three venues, covering 40 years of Wood’s imagemaking. There is a companion book, published by Steidl, that is a must have addition to my library.

When I walked in to the House (GEH) the front gallery held about 50 pictures and the feeling was eerie. First off, I remember so many of the pictures from the late 60s and early 70s, It felt like a history of  my photographic education. Much of the extended thinking was something I emulated in my early life as a photographer. John Wood represents that ever inquisitive midset of “what if I try this, what will happen?” There was a certain disregard to the purist viewpoint of that era led by Minor White, Paul Caponigro, et al and he investigated the boundaries of what picture making was, what should it look like and how one should even make pictures. Although he was mainly photography based, even that was not strict dogma.

I spent an hour today looking at the 130 some pictures at VSW and derived much energy from the work. The work wasn’t slathered in arty sauce, it was honest and organic and experimantal and full of energy and joy for the picture making process. How very cool.

Three photographs are up at Panopticon Gallery at Kenmore Square in Boston.

Bruce Myren is showing at Gallery Kayafas in Boston, The View Home, a series of 8×10 contact prints (and a fine series it is.  Arlette Kayafas has moved her gallery at 450 Harrison upstairs to a new space with double the space and exhibition possibilities.  Also included in the show are three large scale triptychs for his memories series.  The show and gallery opened on Oct 16.

Karin Rosenthal, Belly Landscape 1980

First Doubt: Optical Confusion in Modern Art, a new show by Joshua Chan, curator at Yale University Art Gallery, with 114 pictures drawn from the Allan Chasanoff collection, looks at optical confusion in pictures. A topic that is often talked about in classes but rarely investigated as thoroughly as this. With pictures from Ansel Adams to Lee Friedlander all dealing with a confused optical space, the viewer is challenged to look out and figure out sometimes very beguiling space. The show is up through January 4, 2009 but will be reconfigured three times during the run. Worth a look.

In Jackson, WY at the Oswald Gallery, Cary Tijerina is holding forth and is showing a fine selection of work including Dylan Vitone, Kelli Connell, and Jon Stuart among others.  While not exactly known for first rate fine photography Jackson is blessed to have the Oswalds in residence there.  The gallery is large enough to have several galleries and devote a space to contemproary artists and a fine showing of collectable photographs as well.  Cary is a knowledgeable, engaging and articulate host.  When in Jackson and tired of the extraordinary landscape and weather, spend some time at Oswald Gallery.

Behind the Seen: Photographs of Abe Morell

The second time I have seen and written about an Abe Morell exhibition in two months; this time at YUAG in New Haven.  There are about 40 pictures up including some of his very recent color work done in museums (as Doran Artist in Residence at YUAG) and camera obscura. The show is up through Aug 10.

The guy just continues to make first rate stuff.

Jerry Leibling has a grand show at Yale Art Gallery that went up last week, most of a collection Yale recently purchased, with pictures from 1947-2000, b&w and color. Leibling is a master of surface, body, spirit and life. I sure like his work, especially his most recent color stuff.

Butterfly Boy, Jerome Leibling, 1949

Photographs from the Doris Bry collection are also up at Yale. A fine historical collection of pictures from Atget to Winogrand and much in between. Amazingly, there were no pictures larger than 20×24, which meant there were lots of pictures to look at very closely. A Robert Frank picture of the highway not even 2×3 in., many in the 8×10 range, quite a change to what we are typically seeing today.

Albert Renger-Patzsch 1942

Abe Morell has a wonderful new bunch of pictures up at Bernie Toale’s Gallery in SOWA. There are a half dozen color camera obscura pictures, three of which are just fine. A group of maybe 8 B&W Cliche Verres of the world. Five or six new pictures mad in museums, of juxtapositions of famous artworks juxtaposed with other elements. All three groups certify that Abe just keeps rolling along making strides (maybe leaps and bounds) forward, Solid work and a joy to see.

www.bernardtoalegallery.com

Frank Gohlke has two groups of pictures up at Gallery Kayafus just down the walk from Bernie’s gallery. He is one of the best landscape photographers working today. There is always something curious and beautiful about and in Frank’s pictures, standing in fornt of them invariably reveals more than simple surface or form.

www.gallerykayafas.com

The PRC has its annual member’s show juried by Leslie Martin, Publisher of Aperture. This is a show with ten or so photographers (out more than 300 submissions) and at the very least represents a survey of the state of the art today. The PRC continues to provide a beacon of insight and a feel for the pulse of where the medium is today.

www.bu.edu/prc

I had the chance to see the annual thesis show of Yale this weekend. Some good work, some interesting work, some neither. In year’s past all the work looked the same this year not so. There seems to be an effort to make curious, not attractive pictures though. In the Greene Gallery through 5/25/08.

http://art.yale.edu/Photo