Stopped by 49 Geary in San Francisco yesterday. Bad news, good news. The bad new is that it is true, most of the photo galleries are moving out due to the massive rent increases (the dot coms are moving into the building).
The good news is that there area few good shows there now--and one extraordinary one.
The first surprise for me was at the Stephen Wirtz gallery. I went to 49 without knowing what was in any of the galleries (except Fraenkel) and it was a kick to see that here they were showing pieces from the "We Make You US" book by Mandel and Larry Sultan. The funny thing is I had just purchased the book the week or two before and had been going through it a few days prior. It was weird--there it is in the book one day and the next thing there it is on the walls. Some cool stuff--my favorites are the "Oh la la" mushroom cloud and the guys in suits and hardhats wading into the sea of foam. Spent some tie chatting about the demise of the photo gallery with Wirtz. Doesn't seem to be a way out. But who knows what the future holds...
Scott Nichols had up the Vivian Maier show. Good stuff--but am I the only one completely overdosing on Vivian Maier? Scott has an amazing collection in general and in the alcove some of it is displayed--a Weston of Charis Wilson on a dune, An Ansel, on its side in a stach, leaning against the wall (Zabrinski Point). A Wynn Bullock I did not recognize--looked like something very early in his career. The classic Ken Josephson of the post card and ship. Tice's best known work with the gas station and the water tower. Fun.
Robert Tat had up a set of tintypes from David Sokosh. Fun to see modern tintypes. Tat has bins and bins of photos to browse through from all periods of photo history. Great stuff for the beginning collector--big names at low prices...
The Koch Gallery had an excellent Bruce Davidson show up--Civil Right photos--the book came out about ten years ago and is now out of print. This same show was in New York last year. Amazing to see--it looks like pictures from another world or from some other, third world country. Soldiers guarding a guy selling ice cream. People arm in arm marching. "Colored only" signs (in neon, no less).
The high point for me was Frankel. They've given over the entire gallery to just six or so work by Hiroshi Sugimoto. The first entire room is filled by his Last Supper work which was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Very nice. The next room has a single photograph in it--one of his sea landscapes. That it. Just that one, filling one wall in a dark room, with a passage from Mathew written in small letters on an adjacent wall, black letters on a dark wall. The third room had a few of his candle images, printed six feet high. They are magical at that size, the burned out white of the flame takes on a presence that just doesn't happen in a book sized reproduction. The gallery walls were painted dark, the lighting perfect. This is how it is done, folks. Wow, simply wow. If you want an amazing aesthetic experience this it.
--Darin
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by mpirie
Bookmarks