“untitled at the moment”

Anne and I purchased this Lartigue gelatin silver print while we were in Paris.

1912, Paris.  Bois de Boulonge.  Monsieur Folletête, Le Secretaire de Papa avec son chien “Tupy”

Here’s a few new addition to our collection.  Picked them up at the 2009 PRC Annual Benefit Auction.

Edward Steichen  photogravure from CAMERA WORK
David Levinthal
John Chervinsky
Count Zichy

A cabinet card and a few tintypes that I found at an antique barn last month.

A new addition to the collection:  Keith Carter, Pool, 2003.

Lodima Press printed a portfolio book of this series and it can be purchased directly through their website.

My newest acquisition straight from the 2009 AIPAD show. 

Matthew Pillsbury
Wyoming Diplodocus, Natural History Museum, London, 2007.

Newest acquisition:
Harold “Doc” Edgerton - Moving skip rope, 1952
Gelatin Silver Print

A new addition to the collection:
Edward S. Curtis - Nane Qagyuhl
Original photogravure

A friend recently introduced me to some work by photographer Harold Feinstein.  Feinstein photographed around Coney Island for over six decades and his documentary work had been exhibited widely, including being purchased early on by Edward Steichen while he was a curator at MoMA. The faces of the two people in the center of the frame captivate me.  Some of his other early images remind me so much of Cartier-Bresson.

SANTA ANA, CA:  An exhibition in Santa Ana, California at the VALAA (Vietnamese Arts & Letters Association) Center sparked protests from the Vietnamese community.  The group show, F.O.B. II: Art Speaks drew some controversy with an image by photographer Brian Doan. Doan’s image depicts a Vietnamese girl wearing a red tank top with a yellow star on it sitting next to a bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

The image has been vandalized on a number of occasions during the exhibition.  The glass protecting the image was scratched, a woman protester spit on it, and just the other day someone sprayed red paint on it and attached a tampon and underwear to it.  Reversing his original stance, the curator of the exhibition decided to close the show two days early because The City of Santa Ana notified VALAA that they did not have proper permits to use the space as a gallery.

Doan is creating these photographic portraits for memory. He cares greatly about his heritage, and it is the mainstay in all of his work.  I had a chance to interview Brian this afternoon, attached is an excerpt:

Jason Landry:  The staged narrative is a technique that many contemporary photographers utilize when they create a photograph.  It is a way to create a discourse of something that normally isn’t there.  It makes you think and react.  Is that what you did in this image?
Brian Doan: It was totally staged.  Almost all of my work is about the narrative. I create work in many layers, combining history and props to tell a story.  I wanted to capture what it is like for the younger Vietnamese generation growing up in Vietnam now.  I purchased the t-shirt, had her put her hair up in a ponytail because during communist times, this was how I remember women wearing their hair.  I also put a red book on the table with a cell phone on top of it.  Some may take it as making fun of how Chairman Mao in China made people carry around a red book with his quotes, but all I’m really commenting on is that the cell phone is now more important than the book.  I directed the girl to look away as if she were dreaming.  That’s it.

JL: From what I can understand from the various articles that have been written about the protest, many of the citizens in Little Saigon have expressed that you are trying to flame an old wound, that you are a communist looking to make trouble.  What is your reaction to these claims?
BD: I’m hoping that when they see the series as a whole, they will understand more about me and what I do as an artist. I have begun to get hate e-mail, dirty e-mails, illustrations, and phone calls that are very disturbing. It is interesting that a little image can stir up a big mess.  What can you do…you have to move on.

JL: Your own Father said during one of the protests that he disapproved of your work. Have you had a chance to speak with him since the protest?
BD: I will speak with him when everything settles down.

JL: How did his comments make you feel?
BD: I felt sad. This isn’t the first time and it didn’t totally shock me, but at this point, they should stand behind my work and believe in me.

JL: Do you think that you will have a problem if you get back to Vietnam?
BD: Most likely.  I’m sure they will know more about me now as the person who makes fun of their leader.  I was hoping to go back one more time to work on my project, but it doesn’t look good.  It has now put me in a very uneasy situation.

Read more about the exhibition and protest covered by the L.A Times and the O.C. Register.