My experience at The Photography Show (presented by AIPAD) has always resembled a family reunion. Its members and devotees, bound by the throbbing Dektol in their veins, annually gather to share, sell, and talk photography. It’s not Burning Man, but it’s close.
This year’s highlight for me was to (continue) to see Rosalind Solomon’s work honored and represented by a stunning installation by the MUUS Collection.
I “did” my first AIPAD in the early 1990s in San Francisco. It was a time when AIPAD alternated its destination city. It was oh-so modest then. We had what was close to a card table and, I think, something akin to a peg board to hang photographs.
Eventually, the fair landed on near-permanent ground at the Hilton Hotel for many years before departing for the choicest of halls, the Park Avenue Armory. I did the fair twice under my name, along with Howard Greenberg Gallery and Yancey Richardson Gallery, some years before.
These were good times to be “in” photography. Prices were rising, and photography was slowly inching up the ladder to a rung very close to other fine arts. Its days of being a runt were slowly changing. The Armory Show (not to be confused with the Park Avenue Armory) even started a photography fair of its own. Held at the Javits Center, it boasted some of the biggest names in Contemporary art. Because by then (circa 2002), many of the prominent contemporary art galleries in Chelsea were showing photography.
Photography was in vogue!
…and then it wasn’t.
As quickly as photography had risen, its star started to sink and lose its shine slowly. The Armory Show did not do another all-photography show. AIPAD was forced to leave The Park Avenue Armory and re-stake their claim at the cavernous piers on the far west side and a far cry from their collecting base.
The silver lining here was the brilliant idea of having a bookseller/publisher section in the new venue (something that is now gone in the current incarnation).
AIPAD started opening the fair to non-members, which was a sign that the fair needed help. Rumors of Paris Photo coming to New York or conjoining AIPAD began swirling. It never materialized.
The Photography show now finds itself at Center 415, a non-descript event space in no neighborhood in particular.
The once illustrious catalog is now simply a foldout.
AIPAD started for a reason, and its mission was to bring together people that adored photography and help build a marketplace for those that loved the medium and thought it deserved status and connoisseurship.
This was accomplished, and I will never not attend. How could I even consider not seeing my “family” every year to catch up and reminisce about the good old days?
But a more extended conversation is needed as it applies to you and your career (and I promise I will in a future column).
I am not worried about myself, but I am wondering about the artists that call photography their primary medium.
In my time, you worked at other photo galleries and then opened your own. I don’t see a lot of that anymore. I am a part of the last generation to follow this path.
Where are the new galleries specializing in photography? Of course, they are out there, somewhere.
But in New York?
I’ll keep looking.
Classes & Notes
The Deloitte Photo Grant, under the artistic direction of Denis Curti and a panel of international jurors, aims to stimulate social reflection and, based on intellectual awareness, foster the concept of Connections.
The grant comprises two awards (an Open Call and Nominations by Referrers) with a combined value of €60,000, a book, and an exhibition.
Deadline: April 30 | deloittephotogrant.com
The spring symposium on AI, which I mentioned ned my last column, is now online for those who missed being there. No excuses. Looklook and digest. It’s here.
Deadline: Open | mfaphoto.sva.edu
Feeling Fresh? Submissions are now open for the FRESH. The 12th annual call for entries from the fabulous Klompching Gallery offers an exhibition, awards, representation…and a lot of community fun!
Deadline: April 30 | klompching.comThe Lucie Photo Book Prize is back and better than ever. The Lucie Foundation is proud to offer two cash prizes to the top two finalists for their outstanding work: A traditional $3,000 cash prize and an Independent $2,000 cash prize.
Deadline: August 30 | theluciefoundation.org
Google and Aperture have teamed up to bring you the 2023 Creator Labs Photo Fund—an initiative providing financial support to encourage artists at formative moments in their careers. Started in 2021, this second season of the Creator Labs Photo Fund will support a greater selection of artists, with grants provided to thirty artists for new work created in the past three years.
Submissions are free and open to any photographer or lens-based artist living in the US. Thirty selected artists will be awarded a prize of $6,000 each.
Deadline: May 1 | aperture.org
Michael Foley opened his gallery in the fall of 2004 after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries, including the Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, and Yancey Richardson Gallery.
In 2002, Foley continued his interest in educating and working with artists by serving on the School of Visual Arts and International Center of Photography faculty. He teaches and lectures on contemporary photography issues at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In 2020, he founded The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography.
Foley lives and works in Manhattan with his wife, Maya, and son, Jack.
Thanks so much for that comment. There is a place for everything and everybody under the huge (and getting huger) umbrella of image making, lens based or not. As artists, we need to find our audience (they are out there) and find the venues that show work that makes us individually sing.
Some will say photography is becoming more specialized or that categories are increasing to fit all that fits in. It's splintering I think.
Prediction: AIPAD goes back to card tables and peg boards. I don't mean that literally (!!!) Maybe just back to basics, classic if you will.
I agree, I always looked forward to the yearly AIPAD catalogue. It was a primary source of who represented who.
As for the young new gallerists, few if any specialize in photographs. And few if any can afford the overhead, especially in a location like New York.