Call it déjà vu. Last year, the final day of the AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) Photography Show in New York was greeted with a nasty blizzard. This year, despite being held two months later in the year (in spring-like April instead of February) the fair’s final day in the Big Apple was met with torrential downpours, flooding and warnings from Mayor Bloomberg to stay at home. But never underestimate the tenacity of New York art collectors. Extreme weather conditions notwithstanding, crowds braved the elements to visit the final day of the 27th annual AIPAD Photography Show, making the fair’s April 12-15 run a success.
On the whole, exhibitors were satisfied with the turnout and number of buyers. Said long-time exhibitor Catherine Edelman of Chicago, “I thought the show looked terrific and 2007 proved to be one of our best years ever.” Edelman, who has exhibited at the fair for sixteen years, was impressed with the seriousness of the visitors to the fair, adding that she sold pieces to numerous new collectors.
The fair took place at the Park Avenue Armory for the second time. Exhibitors and visitors alike consider the location to be a vast improvement over the previous venue, the Hilton. More than 90 galleries participated, including first-time exhibitors like Robert Miller Gallery of New York and the Rose Gallery of Santa Monica, in addition to long-time members such as Catherine Edelman Gallery of Chicago and Paul Kopeikin Gallery of Los Angeles. Fair organizers decided to hold the event in April because the photography auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, among others, are held shortly thereafter. A palpable energy hung in the air when I visited on the first day, with exhibitors enthusiastically chatting with would-be and existing collectors milling about the displays.
Walking through the aisles, I noticed the usual mix of vintage black and white prints alongside large-scale contemporary photographs. I encountered old favorites like Berenice Abbott and Richard Avedon, and was taken with work by Gotz Diergarten (color photographs of a row of small beach houses, selling for $2,800) represented by Kicken Berlin of Germany, as well as the young Japanese photographer Tomoko Sawada, represented by Zabriskie Gallery of New York, who, in the tradition of Cindy Sherman and Nikki Lee, plays a host of characters and identities in her self-portraits. Mona Kuhn’s photographs of attractive lounging nudes were on display in several booths, including Jackson Fine Art of Atlanta and Charles Cowles Gallery of New York. Meanwhile, Susan Anderson’s photographs of young pageant girls primped with adult hairstyles, caked-on makeup and suggestive clothing that seemed better suited to an adult than a seven-year-old girl, presented what some would regard an unseemly spectacle at Paul Kopeikin’s booth. Anderson traveled around the country from pageant to pageant to capture the lives of these young girls, and the effect is unsettling.
Especially popular among buyers were photographs by Julie Blackmon, represented by Catherine Edelman Gallery of Chicago. Edelman sold an impressive 26 pieces by Blackmon during the show and four more since the fair closed, with prices ranging from $1600 to $3800. Blackmon’s “Domestic Vacations” series of color prints are inspired by the Dutch artist Jan Steen and other Dutch and Flemish painters, and center on scenes of family life in disarray , often with boisterous children wreaking havoc. Blackmon, the oldest of nine children and also a mother of three, lends a humorous touch to these subjects. In the work “Camouflage,” for example, four children of varying ages create mischief in a disorderly room with no adult in sight—every parent’s nightmare.
Also popular among buyers were Jeffrey Milstein’s photographs of passenger airlines captured in flight, represented by Los Angeles dealer Paul Kopeikin. Milstein stands with his camera at the end of a runway watching airplanes descend and captures all the details of their shapes and construction. Kopeikin noted that they have continued to make sales of Milstein’s work even after the fair.
Meanwhile, first time exhibitor Robert Miller Gallery of New York sold works by the Australian photographer Bill Henson, whose theatrical tableau style offers a sense of mystery and intrigue, and Japanese artist Mayumi Terada, whose sparse, light-infused black and white interiors have a meditative quality.
But my favorite photograph on view at Miller’s booth was “Schnalstalgletscher XX/2003,” by the Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr. This imposing, large-scale yet highly detailed photograph of a mountain landscape covered in snow and ice is startlingly beautiful. Among the shades of white and gray are tiny marks of color, which upon closer inspection reveal themselves to be humans dressed in brightly colored ski suits. The vast scale of the work draws attention to the small place Man holds in relation to the natural elements.
The photograph also reminds me how grateful I was to be indoors, protected from the pouring rain.
