Made a day trip to Chelsea today with my wife, to check out a few galleries for my first time.
We visited Aperture, Danziger Gallery, The Chelsea Art Museum, MUSECPMI and the Camera Club of New York.
Aperture was a great space, and it was a surprise to me that Ansel Adams was one of the founders. The exhibit (subway/street images) was interesting but not my personal taste. There were a few Paul Strand prints which were good.
Danziger had a great Steichen exhibit. Lots of 8x10 contact prints of famous names from the 20s and 30s. Hepburn, Grabo, Churchill, Teddy and FDR, etc. The gallery space was well lit and cozy. Steichen is a master of extracting character from his subjects and a genius with lighting.
The Chelsea Art Museum had an interesting Sony photo competition exhibit, with many categories and photographers shown. Some of it appealed to us, but some was not our style. The street level space was OK but lots of noise from the outside. The upper levels were OK.
The Camera Club of New York was really cool - a small gallery in the front room, with several photography production areas in the back. This includes a studio, mounting/finishing/scanning area and several individual wet darkrooms. Really cool place. Their history is interesting because of the length of time since inception in 1884, and that Stieglitz and other notables were an members or lecturers.
MUSECPMI had an interesting space and a good exhibit, but the curators seemed to have recently had a security incident and were on edge. We didn't stay long because of the vibe.
Altogether a great day, and we left many galleries to visit on the next trip. I learned some things about presenting/exhibiting prints.
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