PrintKid

AIPAD

I was in New York a few weekends ago with some friends from school for the AIPAD photoshow (The Association of International Photography Art Dealers) and it was the best!

It was at the park avenue armory (which is a beautiful building) and I saw some really incredible work. Since it’s mostly for art dealers/collectors, it’s a lot of old, super expensive work that you only ever get to see in an art history slide show. It was really amazing actually being able to see prints that were made by all of the people who are responsible for what contemporary photography is today.

I saw Ansel Adams’ work (which is surprisingly only maybe 16x20, I figured they’d be HUGE), Laura Letinsky, Irving Penn, Wee Gee (a lot of him because his works being shown at ICP right now), Francesca Woodman (again, lots because her work is at the Guggenheim… more info on that in another post), Steve McCurry (the famous girl in the headscarf with the green eyes from national geographic, I had no idea what the photographer’s name was before this), but there was 3 things I saw that really stood out. they were more than just photos that I remembered from slides or textbooks, they were kind of important.

First of all, I got to see Henry Fox Talbot’s prints. Some of the oldest photographic prints still in existence were on display and just being able to look at the beginning of the medium was incredible. The prints were in a booth that had daguerreotypes too. It was like a photo time machine (for rich people) and it was quite the humbling experience. Made my top 3 booths, rolling in at number 3.

Second, there was a booth for a gallery out of germany called f5.6 which was awesome. They had a bunch of prints by an artist named Juliane Eirich and also a proof copy of a new book that she’s coming out with called Korea Diary. The photos in the book are all taken from the 18 months she spent in Korea. She kept a photo diary of the places she went, the weird things she saw and her day to day activities. The book was fantastic but it was also really cool just being able to see a photo book that isn’t even released yet. This was my 2nd favourite booth.

Finally, my favourite booth. I was walking with one of my professors named Jordan (who also stayed in New York over the weekend and met up with us at a few of the galleries we went to) and we were talking about some of the work we had just looked at. As we turned a corner, I saw something that I a) never thought I’d see in real life and b) never would have thought would be at AIPAD (since it’s mostly historical and very rarely contemporary work). There was an entire booth dedicated to Phillip Lorca Dicorcia and it was amazing. there was one of his photos from Heads, some of his more recent fashion-ish/portraits of women, and a little nook around a corner that had small still lives and polaroids that I had no idea even existed. The polaroids were my favourite for sure. Seeing a bunch of famous work was great but seeing work by a person who has directly influenced what you make/how you work/what you like, it was the best experience I’ve had viewing art so far in my life.

It was a really great experience and i just had to get it all out.

If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading. 

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