Perception and Description

Work in Progress, January 2012

2012-01-09T23:00:00.002-05:00

Here is a selection of new photographs from October, November and December 2011.

Strollers, 34th Street, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Climbing Child, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Lady Gaga Now 50% Off, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Nighttime Pedestrians, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Rockefeller Center, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Hot Dog Vendor, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Train Show, New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Exchanging Gifts, Christmas Eve, Yonkers, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Dessert, Christmas Eve, Yonkers, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Christine and Jessica, Christmas Eve, Yonkers, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Thanksgiving Dinner, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Work in Progress, October 2011

2011-10-19T17:13:00.003-04:00

This selection of new photographs was taken in August and September 2011.

Getting Directions, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Cell Phone and Mannequins, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Stroller Check, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Twilight in Front of the Whitney Museum, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

In the Fountain, Flushing Meadow Park, Queens, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Spectators, U.S. Open, Queens, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Dogs, Farmers' Market, Katonah, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Hampton Beach, NH, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Gallery Opening, Dobbs Ferry, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Ann's 85th Birthday, New Castle, NH, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Quinn Rowing, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

After Hurricane Irene, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

"Festa", Exhibition of Photographs of Italian-American Festivals, Now Extended Through October 23, 2011

2011-10-07T09:42:00.006-04:00

The exhibition of photographs from my Italian-American Festival series at the Italian American Museum, located at 155 Mulberry Street, right in the heart of New York's Little Italy, has been extended through Sunday October 23, 2011. The work explores the social and cultural implications of the endurance of this tradition, as well as addressing the contradictions of existence inherent in living between two diverse cultures. Signed copies of my companion book, La Festa: Italian Festivals in America, are also available for sale in the Museum bookstore. Please stop by if you haven't yet had a chance to see this show.

•The Italian American Museum is located at 155 Mulberry Street (corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets), New York, NY 10013. They can be reached at (212) 965-9000 or e-mail at info@italianamericanmuseum.org. Visit their website at http://www.italianamericanmuseum.org/.

•Museum hours are Saturday and Sunday, Noon-6:00 PM.
The Museum will also be open on Monday October 10, 2011 from Noon-6:00 PM in celebration of Columbus Day.

Robert Forlini, Artist's Talk, Italian American Museum, NYC, 9/8/2011

"Reunion: 20 Years of Making Art at Upstream Gallery", on View from Sept. 15-Oct. 9, 2011

2011-09-12T19:31:00.005-04:00

Frozen Lake, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2010 © Robert Forlini

I will be participating in the exhibit celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Upstream Gallery in Dobbs Ferry, NY from September 15-October 9th, 2011. The show will bring together many of the gallery's past and present artists representing many different media. It promises to be a fine exhibition and a lot of fun, reuniting many old friends! I will be showing my photograph, Frozen Lake, Lake Peekskill, NY 2010.

Opening reception will be on Sunday September 18, 2011 from 2:00-5:30 PM.
The show will run from September 15-October 9, 2011.
Gallery hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12:30-5:30 PM
You can contact the gallery at (914) 674-8548 or at upstreamgallery26@gmail.com, or visit their website at www.upstreamgallery.com.

"Festa", An Exhibition of Photographs of Italian-American Festivals on View at the Italian American Museum in NYC through October 9

2011-09-03T07:59:00.002-04:00

I am currently exhibiting photographs from my Italian-American Festival series at the Italian American Museum, located at 155 Mulberry Street, right in the heart of New York's Little Italy, through October 9, 2011. The work explores the social and cultural implications of the endurance of this tradition, as well as addressing the contradictions of existence inherent in living between two diverse cultures. There will be a reception on Thursday evening, September 8 from 6:30-8:30 PM, with an artist's talk at 6:30 PM. In addition, signed copies of my book, La Festa: Italian Festivals in America, will be available for sale in the Museum bookstore. The exhibition will overlap with this year's Feast of San Gennaro from September 15-25, which is the largest event of this kind in New York, and will feature special extended Museum hours during the Feast days. So come grab a sausage and peppers and some peaches and wine, then head over to see the show. Ci vediamo alla festa!

Fisherman's Feast, Boston, MA 2001
© Robert Forlini

The Italian American Museum is located at 155 Mulberry Street (corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets), New York, NY 10013. They can be reached at (212) 965-9000 or e-mail at info@italianamericanmuseum.org. Visit their website at www.italianamericanmuseum.org.
Museum hours are Saturday and Sunday, 12 Noon-6:00 PM. Special Extended Museum Hours during the Feast of San Gennaro: the Museum will be open Every Day from 12 Noon-6:00 PM from September 15-25, 2011.
Reception on Thursday September 8, 2011 from 6:30-8:30 PM, with an Artist's Talk at 6:30 PM.

Feast of St. Ann, Hoboken, NJ 1999
© Robert Forlini

Work in Progress, August 2011

2011-08-23T07:38:00.005-04:00

Here are some new photographs which were shot in June and July 2011.

People at Fountain, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Women with Canes, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Woman Reading, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Businessmen, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Curious Dog, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Parking Sign, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Woman Smoking, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Woman on Cell Phone, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Couple, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Graduation Party, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Senior Prom, Putnam Valley, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Lake Party, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

"La Festa: Italian Festivals in America" Photo Book by Robert Forlini Now Available

2011-08-12T14:41:00.003-04:00

You don't have to be Italian to love a feast! I have just published the long awaited book of images from my Italian-American Festivals series entitled La Festa: Italian Festivals in America. It is 44 pages and contains 41 black and white and color photographs, many of which have not been previously seen in exhibitions or on my website. I feel that these pictures really capture the spirit and "Italian-ness" of the Festa. It's just like being at the Feast except without the sausage and peppers! You will enjoy returning to its pages again and again. It is beautifully printed and available softcover for $31.95 and hardbound with image cover for $44.95. Preview and purchase directly online from Blurb Books at the link below:

Click here to preview and purchase La Festa: Italian Festivals in America, Photographs by Robert Forlini

Feast of the Giglio, Brooklyn. NY 1999
© Robert Forlini

Feast of St. Anthony, New York, NY 2000
© Robert Forlini

"Core Curriculum, Writings on Photography" by Tod Papageorge

2011-07-26T18:59:00.002-04:00

It is humbling to be reviewing the book of such a brilliant writer on photography as Tod Papageorge. Well known as a photographer and teacher of photography (he has held the Walker Evans chair at Yale since 1979), Core Curriculum, Writings on Photography, (Aperture, 2011) presents Papageorge's collected essays from the last 35 years in one volume. As Papageorge himself declared at a recent reading and book signing, he does not consider himself primarily to be a writer, and the relatively small output offered here would seem to bear this out. However, what is perhaps a low quantity of words for the time span represented is nonetheless dense in quality. Papageorge is an immensely profound thinker on the subject of photography, and a keen and opinionated observer of the photography scene, perhaps second only to the late John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art in his insight and originality. It is not only his wisdom which keeps us engaged in the text, but his well crafted language is also a pleasure to read (this makes sense: Papageorge began his academic career as an English literature major before becoming enthralled with photography). Many of the writings will be familiar: (his essay for The Snapshot (Aperture #19:1), the introduction to Garry Winogrand's Public Relations and his treatise for Walker Evans and Robert Frank: An Essay on Influence, for example); they are all welcomed re-reading in this new context. There are also many newly published entries, including impassioned tributes to the photographers Atget, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Winogrand and Koudelka (with many plates of the referenced pictures), several sharp interviews with Papageorge himself, and my personal favorite, "An Unfinished Poem in Response to Susan Sontag's On Photography". Unlike writers such as Sontag, who seem to have contempt for the medium, Papageorge postulates in one interview that the best writing about photography has been penned by those involved in its actual practice, giving Szarkowski and Robert Adams as illustrations. With his deep understanding and love for photography, I would add Tod Papageorge to that pantheon.

Man and Eye Chart, Central Park, New York, 1989
© Tod Papageorge

Tod Papageorge Book Signing,
Aperture Gallery, NYC, 6/29/2011
© Robert Forlini

Core Curriculum, Writings on Photography by Tod Papageorge, is available online from its publisher, the Aperture Foundation, and at bookstores and online everywhere.

"Henry Wessel, Vintage Photographs" Exhibit at Pace/MacGill Gallery

2011-06-24T12:42:00.000-04:00

San Francisco, 1973
© Henry Wessel

Henry Wessel is a photographer of talent whose work is not seen often enough in exhibitions or in print. So it is most welcome that now on view at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City is "Henry Wessel, Vintage Photographs" through July 8, 2011. Wessel, who has been photographing primarily in the American West since the 1960's, has the rare quality of being able to make pictures which perfectly blend both visual beauty and wry social commentary. No matter how diverse his subject matter, Wessel's work maintains a stylistic cohesion that marks the work as uniquely his own. Garry Winogrand once stated that the contention of content threatening to overwhelm form in his own pictures was what created their tension. The obverse is true in Wessel's photographs; it is the form which threatens to overpower the content. The art of Wessel's pictures is the delicate balance between these elements, teetering on the edge of formalism, yet always managing to draw us back to the significance of their meaning. They are simultaneously a celebration of the joys of seeing and and a commentary on the strange world which surrounds us.

Dog Show, Oakland, 1981 © Henry Wessel

Walapai, Arizona, 1971 © Henry Wessel

Click image to play video of a Henry Wessel interview.

Pace/MacGill Gallery is located at 32 East 57th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10022, and can be contacted at 212-759-7599 or at info@pacemacgill.com. Summer hours are Monday-Thursday 9:30 am-5:30 pm and Friday 9:30 am-4:00pm.
A slide show of the exhibition is available online on the Pace/MacGill website.
You will also find there a biography of Henry Wessel.

Work in Progress, June 2011

2011-06-16T14:32:00.004-04:00

This installment of Work in Progress features a selection of new photographs shot in and around New York City in April and May 2011.

Hasidic Family, Midtown Manhattan, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Cell Phone Photographer, Cinco de Mayo, Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Pharmacy, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Crossing Canal Street, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Father and Son, Cinco de Mayo, Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Photographer, New York Auto Show, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Overgrown House, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Garden, Lake Peekskill, NY 2011 © Robert Forlini

Flag, Lake Peekskill, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Anne Reading Magazine, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, 2011 © Robert Forlini

"DINNER", A Photo Exhibition at Umbrella Arts, NYC

2011-04-23T18:23:00.005-04:00

Elijah and Ashley's Wedding, Murfreesboro, TN, 2009
© Robert Forlini

I will be exhibiting two photographs in a forthcoming exhibition entitled "DINNER" at Umbrella Arts Gallery in New York City. To quote from the show's description, "From casual meals to gourmet banquets, DINNER is part of our daily lives. Whether we celebrate it or just tolerate it, we can’t do without it. We plan greatly for it, or grin and bear it. It’s a ritual, whether eating on the run or at the dinner table, alone or with friends and family. We romance and socialize around it, worry about it, prepare for it, dread it, or try to ignore it. We study recipes, look through fancy restaurant windows in envy, are hungry for the next DINNER, wonder if we can afford it." The show was juried by photographer Harvey Stein, who selected my pictures Elijah and Ashley's Wedding, Murfreesboro, TN, 2009 and Backyard Supper, Yonkers, NY, 1989 for inclusion in the show.

The exhibition will run from May 19 to June 18, 2011.
There will be an Opening Reception on Thursday, May 19 from 6:00-8:00 PM.
Gallery Hours are: Thursday-Saturday, 1:00-6:00 PM and by appointment.
The gallery is located at 317 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003, and can be contacted at (212) 505-7196 or at info@umbrellaarts.com

Backyard Supper, Yonkers, NY, 1989 © Robert Forlini

Work in Progress, April 2011

2011-04-16T13:16:00.004-04:00

In this new feature of my blog, I will be presenting photographs which I am currently editing and printing, appearing here for the first time before they are posted to my website. Since this is truly "work in progress", I am especially welcoming and appreciative of comments and feedback. This selection is from Chinatown and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Crowd, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Woman Walking, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Couple, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Fish Market, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Family, Chinatown, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

Man Looking at Statue, Metropolitan Museum, NYC, 2011
© Robert Forlini

Nuns and Painting, Metropolitan Museum, NYC, 2011 © Robert Forlini

"Steiglitz, Steichen, Strand" Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

2011-03-22T22:00:00.003-04:00

Alfred Steiglitz, The Terminal, 1893

The exhibition, "Steiglitz, Steichen, Strand", on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through April 10, 2011, presents the work of three pioneers of Modern photography at the turn of the 20th Century. While not a comprehensive survey of the innovations of these artists, the show does succeed in capturing the spirit and significance of their respective accomplishments. Alfred Steiglitz (1864-1946) was the charismatic elder statesman of the group, a photographer and art dealer who championed the acceptance of photography as an art form and introduced many emerging European painters to the United States through his galleries. Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was an early disciple of Steiglitz and a master craftsman who experimented with many methods to achieve his artistic vision, including early color processes. Both at first worked in the Pictorialist style, which attempted to gain legitimacy by obscuring photography's detail and sharpness through imitating the conventions of painting, softening the image with focus and printing techniques. Steiglitz, in part influenced by the European art he was showing, eventually grew tired of this fashion and sought a new and fresh approach. Enter the youngest member of this triumvirate, Paul Strand (1890-1976). On advice from Steiglitz, Strand went forward and created a body of work which exploited photography's hard edges and sharp focus into a new, purely photographic and modern statement. Strand was also a socially conscious artist (he had studied with Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture School), and he included more human content in his work. Steiglitz embraced this new style, showing Strand's work at his "291" Gallery and publishing it in the lush Camera Work journal. These collaborations and cross influences heralded the inception of Modern photography. For me, it is Strand who emerges from this exhibition as the foremost visionary. In the hindsight of a century passed, his pictures remain as timeless and relevant as any great work of art.

Edward Steichen, Rodin-The Thinker, 1902

Paul Strand, Blind, 1916

"Steiglitz, Steichen, Strand" is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through April 10, 2011. The Met is located at 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. in NYC. Info (212) 535-7710 or visit www.metmuseum.org.
The beautifully printed exhibition catalog, Steiglitz, Steichen, Strand (Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, publishers), with an informative essay by curator Malcolm Daniel, is available from the Museum or at amazon.com.

"Black and White" Is Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery's New Online Exhibit

2011-03-20T21:03:00.001-04:00

Ice Skating, Lake Peekskill, NY 2004 ©Robert Forlini

My photograph, Ice Skating, Lake Peekskill, NY 2004, has been selected by juror Dan Burkholder, to appear in and exhibition entitled "Black and White" at Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery's Online Gallery Annex. To quote from the juror's statement, "

The images thrust me onto another plane of appreciation for those practitioners who have honed their vision into shades of gray, embracing one of photography’s earliest and most honored ways of expressing the photographic image...t

he black and white photograph distills our range of perception, forcing a contemplation of the shapes, the light, and the stories behind the image before us...

Put simply, it’s magical!" In addition, the picture will be published in an exhibition catalog which will be available through the gallery web site.

"Fair Play" Photos Featured on Leica Website for 2011 Oskar Barnack Award

2011-02-23T08:16:00.000-05:00

Dunk the Clown, Peekskill, NY 2010
© Robert Forlini

Selections from my portfolio, "Fair Play", a series depicting country fairs, carnivals and amusement parks, have been posted on the Leica camera website. The pictures are contenders for the 2011 Oskar Barnack Award. An international jury awards the Leica Oskar Barnack Award to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence. Entry submissions must be a self-contained series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style – creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive. All photo series submitted will be displayed in a special online gallery in the "Contest" section. The award is named after photographic pioneer Oskar Barnack (1879–1936), the inventor of the Leica.

Calf Feeding, Rhinebeck, NY, 2008 © Robert Forlini

"Home is Where the Camera Is" at Vermont PhotoPlace Gallery, March 1-26, 2011

2011-02-05T17:35:00.005-05:00

Mother's Day, Lake Peekskill, NY 2004 ©Robert Forlini

I will be exhibiting Mother's Day, Lake Peekskill, NY 2004 in an exhibition entitled "Home is Where the Camera Is" at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. The exhibition runs from March 1-March 26, 2011, with a reception on Friday March 18 from 5-7pm. The exhibition was juried by photographer Julie Blackmon, and sets out to explore how we use the camera to record our lives and the lives of others. There will also be a full color catalog available for purchase. To quote from the Juror's Statement, "When it comes down to the themes of family life and home. . . some things never change. The intimacy, the tenderness, the passion for life and those we love, the small stories found in the most ordinary everyday moments, and even the sometimes inescapable angst built into all of it, are the same things that have defined "home" long before our digital cameras and computer software came along." The PhotoPlace Gallery is located at 3 Park Street in Middlebury, Vermont, just a few doors down from the Sheldon Museum in the center of town.

Contact information for the PhotoPlace Gallery is: 3 Park Street, Middlebury, VT 05753. Telephone (
802)989-2359;
email: photos@vtphotoworkplace.com
Exhibition dates: March 1- March 26, 2011.
Reception: Friday March 18, 5-7 pm.
Gallery hours: Tuesdays through Fridays 11-4; Saturdays: 10-2.
By appointment only on Sundays and Mondays.

"Street Photography Now": A New Book Featuring the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-01-23T15:44:00.001-05:00

Street Photography Now, edited by Sophie Howarth and Stephan McLaren (Thames & Hudson, London, 2010) is a recent compendium of street photography which features some excellent photographers of the genre but is inconsistent in the quality of the work presented. "Street photography" itself is an imperfect definition. It is a term that Garry Winogrand despised ("Just because I did a book about zoos doesn't make me an animal photographer," he said). For him, still photography was the distinctive term. And so arises one of the problems of trying to put together a collection of so-called street photography. As is true with so many areas of photography, it places a misleading emphasis on subject matter and literalness, rather than on artistic approach and underlying meaning. As Richard Lacayo aptly put it in Time magazine, "I'll call it, imperfectly, subjective street photography, though nearly all photography is to some degree subjective and this kind doesn't have to take place in the streets." So right off the bat, you're constraining yourself based on subject and perhaps including work of lesser merit simply because it took place in the street. Another limitation of this book is that it seems to draw heavily upon photographers who happen to be members of the iN-PUBLIC web site. We are informed in the accompanying essay that street photography is enjoying a Renaissance, perhaps because of interest generated on the Internet. Well, I'm glad it's getting attention, but for some of us it never went away. What this book really needed was some stricter editing. Many of the pictures are trite and cliched, or too easy (what Phil Perkis has called "shooting fish in a barrel"). Some of the photographers are outstanding, however, in both their styles and messages. The stand-out bodies of work for me include those of Richard Kalvar, Trent Parke, Martin Parr, Raghu Rai, Otto Snoek and Ying Tang. Others, such as Cristobal Hara and Alex Webb, have some brilliant individual images but lack a sustained vision. The accompanying essay does provide some insight into the historic traditions, even if incomplete (it seems to start with Walker Evans and has many glaring omissions). A cogent analysis of the pitfalls of practicing street photography in these paranoid times is also provided, although the text is sometimes prone toward hyperbole ("Street photographers still wait patiently on dismal street corners while gales of diesel fumes clog their lungs and sting their eyes.") All in all, this is a book worth having; you'll just find yourself skipping around a bit.

Street Photography Now is available at amazon.com and elsewhere.
Many of these photographers' work can be seen at the iN-PUBLIC: The home of street photography website.

Qibao, Shanghai, 2007 ©Ying Tang

A rickshawman taking a nap in Jama Masjid Market, Delhi, 2005
© Raghu Rai

2010: The Year in Pictures

2010-12-30T20:32:00.001-05:00

Midtown Shoppers, NYC, 2010 © Robert Forlini

The pictures in this case are not newsworthy, but they are new and noteworthy. I have just posted Recent Work from 2010 on my website, Robert Forlini Photographer. Please have a look, and as always I welcome everyone's interesting comments and general greetings and salutations. Happy viewing and Happy New Year!

Paul McDonough Exhibit at Sasha Wolf Gallery Showcases New Book

2010-11-06T16:41:00.005-04:00

For me, Paul McDonough is one of the unsung heros of photography. Although he has been creating images of keen observation and wit for many years, his work has remained largely under appreciated. Now, his second exhibition at Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York is accompanied by his first published book, hopefully bringing him more widespread notoriety in order to help correct this oversight. The exhibition entitled New York City, 1973-1978, together with the photographs from Paul's previous show at the gallery, comprise the work included in the monograph Paul McDonough: New York Photographs, 1968-1978 (Umbrage Editions, Fall 2010), which includes an essay by Museum of Modern Art curator Susan Kismaric. The book covers Paul's early work in photography when he was a new arrival in New York City. He was introduced to Garry Winogrand by childhood friend Tod Papageorge, and was soon inspired to switch from easel painting to street photography as a mode of expression. The pictures themselves not only capture the essence of the City during a time of turmoil and ferment, but have a timeless quality and irony found in spontaneous human drama. Paul has an eye for strange juxtapositions and split second coincidences which are simultaneously poignant and funny. His cast of characters include a encounter between a blind beggar and a hare krishna, three hungry car salesmen waiting for their next prey, a group of Japanese tourists at an exhibit of the first atomic bomb and a crazy collection of tree-climbing kids, bicycles and lovers (among others) in Central Park. The sum total effect of the work is bittersweet. Paul was a teacher of mine at Pratt Institute in the 1980's, and I remembered much of this work from exhibitions back then, an indiction of how well these photographs have endured the test of time. It was a pleasure to be able to experience them again, along with seeing the newly edited pictures for the first time. As Susan Kismaric concluded in her appreciation in the book, "In these pictures, working within a revered tradition so suitable for the pace of modern life, McDonough has applied his finely tuned intuition to show us nothing less than the poetry of daily life."

The exhibition at Sasha Wolf Gallery runs through January 8, 2011. The gallery is located at 548 West 28th Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan and is open Tuesday through Saturday 11am-6 pm. Phone 212-925-0025, e-mail info@sashawolf.com.
The monograph, Paul McDonough: New York Photographs, 1968-1978, is available from amazon.com.

Lee Friedlander's "America by Car" at the Whitney Museum is a Disappointment

2010-10-24T12:53:00.011-04:00

Please don't get me wrong: Lee Friedlander is one of our greatest photographers, and his work often amazes and delights me. But his latest dispatch, "America by Car", on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through November 28, is a huge disappointment. Friedlander is still an acute observer of quirky American culture, but the newly added gimmick of photographing through the interior of a car using a Hasselblad Super Wide camera creates a formal distraction and a mitigating factor to accessing the pleasure and meaning of these pictures. The interiors are not that visually interesting in the first place, and become monotonous when repeated ad nauseam. I felt like yelling, "You've come this far, just get out of the car, Lee!" The most engaging parts of the pictures are out there, reduced to mere incidental details which would be better explored on foot. As John Szarkowski once observed, the secret to photography is standing in the right place, and sitting inside the automobile isn't it. Even Friedlander's other recent pictures taken with the Super Wide seem like a retread of his prior work, a deliberate reprise of the same subject matter through a lens that caricatures his previous accomplishments. Is the photographer getting lazy, or making a nod to Postmodernism? I am reminded of how much more successful were André Kertész's later Polaroid SX-70 photographs in their construction and pathos. Even though the photographer was limited by his age in his ability to move about, he managed to turn this apparent disadvantage around in order to create images that built upon his past achievements. I believe that this work ingeniously becomes an allegory for his earlier period. Every artist has his or her hits and misses, but what really surprises me is the widespread acclaim that has accompanied "America by Car". What has happened to critical judgement in photography writing? Is there an acceptance that the anointed can do no wrong, or is there too much at stake in the art game to risk tainting the reputation of an investment, if not an artist? I'm sorry to have to be the one to say it, but the emperor has no clothes.

If you still want the exhibition catalog, "America by Car" by Lee Friedlander is available from amazon.com.

Still Printing in the Darkroom? Try Adox Paper!

2010-09-30T11:13:00.006-04:00

Orange is back in style!

When Agfa Photo went belly-up in 2005, I was devastated. The paper and other black and white photo materials which I had used for many years and which in part defined my style were no longer available. I went back to using Ilford materials, which I found to be adequate, but not up to Agfa's superior quality. Now the Adox company of Germany has revived many of Agfa's inimitable photo products, including variable and graded paper, film and chemistry. Adox bought the old Agfa manufacturing machines and claims the materials to be identical to the original. My experience bears this out. The superb quality, including the long tonal scale, deep, rich blacks and ability to produce more contrast (which can save many otherwise unprintable negatives) are all there! For me, a new day has dawned and my interest in silver printing has been renewed, even in this digital age. Both the RC and Fiber versions are outstanding. This is an unsolicited endorsement, and I encourage you to try this paper. I really want to keep this bold venture afloat so we don't lose this excellent product again. Also, if you were a fan of Agfa film and the famous Rodinal, now Adonal, developer (not my cup of developer, but I know many who swore by it), these have been reincarnated as well. Currently available in the USA only from Freestyle Photo. Many worldwide distributors can be found on the Adox website, along with technical data. Happy printing!

Why Study Art?

2010-09-28T20:39:00.004-04:00

Autumn is here, and it's time for students and teachers alike to turn their thoughts back to the business of education. I sometimes hear the value of formally studying art debated. After all, art is a subjective thing and who's to say what's good or bad? True, we can teach technique and traditions, but can creativity be learned, or is it something innate? I once heard the photographer Roy DeCarava (who taught at Hunter College for many years) say that the best experience you can expect from an art teacher is "to be inspired, to get really turned around." I have been lucky to have had several teachers who influenced and informed my path as an artist. What has distinguished the best teachers has been their passion and commitment as artists, not only as educators but as practitioners of their craft. As Phil Perkis noted in Teaching Photography: Notes Assembled, "The teacher is seldom the person who loves science and runs home after school to the basement to do science experiments." But how much better to have a teacher who actually does what they teach! The best schools require this from their instructors, but incredible as it seems, many do not. I know an artist who enrolled in a university art education program to discover that many of her fellow students had never made art themselves, yet they would earn degrees declaring them "art educators". It's no wonder then that this lack of commitment leads to mediocre teaching in the arts, which further justifies fiscal cuts. I'm also tired of the perceived need to justify art in the schools because it improves test scores in other, more "academic" disciplines. Why shouldn't art be taught for it's own inherent value and the joy it brings? As Krishnamurti observed in Think on These Things, we should be teaching our students how to think rather than what to think. That's what studying art gives us.

I highly recommend Phillip Perkis' Teaching Photography, Notes Assembled, available from Photo Eye Bookstore.
The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) is an excellent resource for teachers and students of photography.

PHOTOcentric 2010 at Garrison Arts Center Sept.3-26; Reception Fri. Sept. 3, 6-9pm

2010-08-21T11:10:00.006-04:00

I will be exhibiting two photos, Andrew Jackson's Tomb, Nashville, TN 2009 and Girls Fishing, Lake Peekskill, NY 2009 in this year's PHOTOcentric show at the Garrison Arts Center. The show was juried by eminent photographers Stephen Shore and Harvey Stein, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. The show runs from September 3-26, 2010, with an opening reception on Friday, September 3 from 6-8pm. The Garrison Arts Center is located at 23 Garrison's Landing in Garrison, NY 10524, about an hour drive from New York City and easily accessible by Metro-North Hudson Line trains from Grand Central Terminal. For further information, you may contact the gallery at 845-424-3960 or at info@garrisonartcenter.org. I hope you can make it!

Write Up on Hey Hot Shot! Blog

2010-08-17T11:47:00.006-04:00

First off, apologies to both of my followers for the dearth of posts lately. People often ask me if I have a Facebook or Twitter page. The answer is no for now. I have a hard enough time keeping up with this blog! One reason is that not that many interesting things happen to me. Another is that I'm probably spending too much time shooting on the street or laboring in my darkroom. Remember, I savor time away from my computer. I guess I still prefer reality to virtual reality.
In other news, my photos just received a nice write up on the Hey Hot Shot! Blog. For those of you not familiar with it, HHS! is a photography competition project of the Jen Bekman Gallery in New York. Occasional contenders are selected to be featured on the site's blog, and mine was one of them. Shout out to Casey A. Gollan who wrote the piece, and who dug a little deeper into the archives of my web site to see beyond my original submission.

HHS! Contender: Robert Forlini

Italian Feast Photos on Exhibit at Ciao Italy Festival in Brooklyn on June 19

2010-05-27T20:54:00.016-04:00

I will be exhibiting a selection of photographs from my Italian-American Festival series at the 3rd Annual Ciao Italy Performing Arts Festival in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Saturday June 19 from 6pm-10pm. Photographer Todd Carroll will also be showing his photographs of Italian folk dance festivals. The event will present a variety of performances of traditional Italian and Italian-inspired music, opera, dance and theater, and will be held at the Associazione San Cono, 233 Ainslie Street, Ground Floor, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The festival was conceived to create a bridge between the historic Italian community and the community of artists now living and working in the neighborhood. Cost of a festival pass is $25.00, and RSVP is strongly suggested at info@AnabellaLenzu.com or 347-338-8852. Special thanks and appreciation to Anabella Lenzu and Todd Carroll for organizing this event in the celebration Italian culture. The evening promises to be an exciting and entertaining experience for all. Ci vediamo alla festa!

Angels, Columbus Day Parade, NYC

Henri Cartier-Bresson @MoMA

2010-04-18T19:27:00.011-04:00

If you are in New York, do not pass GO, visit "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century" at the Museum of Modern Art on view now through June 28. This extensive retrospective contains over 300 prints from the career of one of the true masters of the medium. The exhibition, curated by Peter Galassi, occupies the 6th floor galleries and is categorized into 13 themes. There are many of the familiar "greatest hits" as well as rarely seen surprises which put his body of work into new perspective. While I'm particularly fond of HCB's early work for its immediacy and artistic freedom, I saw the later pictures in a different context. Many of the better known "photojournalistic" pictures which were sometimes fettered by the constraints of creating imagery more accessible to the public are complimented by photographs which are grittier and edgier. I felt some, especially the photos taken in the United States and the USSR, were prescient of the work of the younger photographer Robert Frank in their probing and haunting qualities. Mr. Galassi's essay in the accompanying catalogue offers further insight into the milieu behind this astonishing work. I was able to attend the panel discussion "The Legacy of Henri Cartier-Bresson" moderated by Mr. Galassi with Magnum photographer Gilles Peress and art historian Jean-Francois Chevier. While the evening was somewhat unstructured and meandering, the lively discussion provided fascinating anecdotes about Cartier-Bresson's life and work.

The exhibition catalogue, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century with an essay by Peter Galassi is available from amazon.com
Recommended reading on Cartier-Bresson's life: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Biography (2005) by Pierre Assouline also at amazon.com
Also recommended is the documentary film Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003), directed by Heinz Bütler featuring interviews with HCB, Josef Koudelka, Elliot Erwitt, Isabelle Huppert, Robert Delpire and others, available on DVD at amazon.com, from Netfilx, etc.

New! Improved! Postmodernism!

2010-02-23T17:22:00.011-05:00

Hey Kids! Wanna be a "Postmodernist" Photographer? It's easy! Just take an extreme close-up color photo of a Barbie head, and blow it up to mural size! (I said it was easy, I didn't say it was gonna be cheap.) Next, repeat for Barbie heads of all different ethnicities. Now you've created a body of work that makes a profound commentary on race and diversity in our society. Mix in a couple of Ken doll heads, and you've added a thesis on gender issues. Add a G.I. Joe and you've made a statement on the nature of war.

Can you spot the real Postmodernist photo?

Joking aside, what is "Postmodern Photography", and how did it get here? I remember articles in the 1980's posing the question before anyone knew the answer. Postmodernism was an art movement which was named before any artists actually created work. Then came the rush to fill the void. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of another art movement that so flagrantly placed the cart before the horse. Traditionally, hasn't it been the artists, the practitioners and not the theorists, who have led the way? Historicaly, labels were only later invented in order to categorize, even pigeon-hole artists' work, even if the epithets were initially meant to be perjorative (think Impressionism).

     In a recent Time magazine article "The Problem with Postmodernism", photographer Tod Papageorge stated, "Sure, things have to change, but photography-as-illustration, even sublime illustration, seems to me an uninteresting direction for the medium to be tracking now, particularly at such a difficult time in the general American culture." He continues, "There's a failure to understand how much richer in surprise and creative possibility the world is for photographers in comparison to their imagination.... Now ideas are paramount, and the computer and Photoshop are seen as the engines to stage and digitally coax those ideas into a physical form—typically a very large form. This process is synthetic, and the results, for me, are often emotionally synthetic too."
     When looking at some contemporary photography, I am reminded of Robert M. Pirsig's observation in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance: "'What's new?' is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question 'What is best?', a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream". The race to acheive "what's new" perfectly describes the pitfall of much of Postmodernism, written about here even before the term was coined in reference to photography.
     At a recent visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, I read the following quote on a wall plaque,"The traditional concept of art meant special knowledge reflecting high acheivement with a focus on technique involving mental agility, and not so much beauty for its own sake." That, I thought, is a goal worth investigating and moving toward in photography. Like the punk rock movement, which eschewed the bloated and overinflated mainstream rock of the 1970's, and the revolutionary bebop style in jazz, a neo-traditionalism could provide revitalization in photography, evolving but remaining true to its roots, a return back to basics with stripped-down directness and the freedom of improvisation. What's new is that our collective experience has been altered, filtered through the past with raised social and political awareness. What's best is that these are the types of pictures that cut more deeply.
For more of Tod Papageorge's comments, here's the link:
"The Problem with Postmodernism", from Time magazine

Shooting Film in a Digital World

2010-02-04T19:12:00.015-05:00

     I still shoot, and teach, silver-based photography. A question often posed by my students is, "why do we still do this this way?" (although at the same time they lament the possible loss of our wet darkroom). Well, film and digital really are two different animals. I use the analogy of my microwave oven: convenient, fast, providing instantaneous results. But when I got my microwave, I didn't throw away my traditional oven. I still use that for what has become known as "slow food", the art of preparing food of quality and taste. I do use digital photography as a tool when it's called for, just as I prefer my microwave when I want to heat up a frozen dinner.
     Likewise, when it comes to my art work I choose film, particularly black and white. Part of the reason is that I've been using these materials for nearly 32 years, and there is a consideration of continuity in my work. Film cameras, especially rangefinders, are quick, quiet and direct and don't distract from the picture taking process. They're a pleasure to operate. They also don't become obsolescent in next to no time. I've found digital cameras to be unnecessarily complicated (the new Leica M9 has potential to overcome past design deficits, albeit at a substantial price). And like the warmth and smell of a freshly baked loaf of bread, there is something inherently gratifying in the luster of a silver print that cannot be replicated in ink.
   Then there is that meditative time spent in the darkroom. It gives one time to think, to reflect on the work and on life, and to spend time in my personal equivalent of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Gone are the myriad distractions and frustrations that come with working on a computer (in fact it's one of the few things I do these days that doesn't require a computer at all).

Throughout the history of photography, technological changes have influenced the aesthetic (see John Szarkowski's incisive book Photography Until Now). About a century ago, Eugene Atget used what was then outmoded photographic technology to create some of the medium's most enduring images. As Phil Perkis has observed on the elements of photography, "The shift to digital tools will not eliminate these aspects any more than the shift from film to video has changed the basic concepts of montage and narrative in motion pictures...I feel strongly that the underlying principles of making something that we think of as transcendent remain basically the same...I hope I'll still be able to get film and printing paper." Me too; I'd really miss the timeless hours spent engrossed under the glow of those orange lights.

Here are two funny and enlightening posts that I enjoyed which continue this debate in greater detail:

Why We Love Film

Film vs Digital Debate on photo.net

Why "Perception and Description"?

2010-01-28T21:34:00.013-05:00

I thought my first foray into blogdom should explain its title. It is derived from a quote by Garry Winogrand on the art of photography: "This process is Perception (seeing) and Description (operating the camera to make a record) of the seeing." As a young photography student, I met Garry on two occasions in the early 1980's, once briefly and again for a more extensive conversation. With his razor sharp insight, he created this deceptively simple axiom which sums up what we should strive for in our photographs. In 1982 Garry's interview with Bill Moyers aired on PBS; I suggest you take a look: