We still have three full days of The Photography Show ahead of us, but we’ve already had the chance to catch up with many artists, collectors, and clients, old and new. It’s always a fun experience to see familiar faces every year. Each of the artists we’re featuring today have a contemporary take on portraiture. Be sure to seem up close and in person at the fair!
Keliy Anderson-Staley
Keliy has been making wet plate collodion tintypes and ambrotypes for over a decade. The photographs that make up [Hyphen]-Americans ask that we dispel labels and judgement. She writes: “…although the heritage of each individual might be inferred from assumptions we make about features and costumes, the viewer is encouraged to suspend the kind of thinking that would traditionally assist in decoding these images in the context of American identity politics.”
Dan Estabrook
Dan’s work is at the intersection of yesterday and today. Working with salt prints, calotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes, Estabrook creates art that echoes his life, loves, desires and fears. Like many practitioners before him, he turns the camera on himself to make contemporary works inspired by the gap between today’s photographic perfection and the past’s technical limitations. As he states: “Using 19th-century techniques and celebrating their flaws and failures, I make seemingly anonymous photographs in order to re-imagine a more personal and dream-like history of photography, seen from a 21st-century perspective. With these processes, I can create my own ‘found photos’ – highly personal objects in which to hide my own secrets and stories.”
Some of Keliy’s and Dan’s pieces alongside Kate Breakey and Laurent Millet.
Jan Kaesbach
For his series People of the 21st Century, Jan Kaesbach creates portraits of tradespeople that resemble contemporary August Sander’s photographs. The artist makes videos that appear static, yet upon closer examination, an eye twitches, a flame flickers or a hand tremors. Each “moving portrait” is made by seamlessly looping 3500 still images, which are then played back at standard film speed. The videos last between 3-4 minutes, creating a tension between the sitter and the artist, as each subject attempts to remain still. These are quiet pieces that allow an intimate interaction with the viewer.
Francesco Pergolesi
Francesco creates photographic tableaus inspired by memories from his past: narrow cobblestone streets, the sound of a hammer coming from the open door of a shoemaker; the smell of fresh bread from a baker, the steady beat of a sewing machine from an open window, the smell of old paper in a used bookstore. Through Heroes, these sights and smells drive his art-making, as he seeks to preserve the past, before big-box and chain stores arrive. The artist presents his work as traditional photographic prints and as 5 x 7 x 2” / 9 x 12 x 3” photo boxes, lit from within. These small pieces force the viewer to stand inches away, creating an intimate interaction with strangers – it is what inspires Pergolesi every day, as he continues to wander the streets looking for a connection.
Click here to see a complete list of all our featured artists.
The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD
Wednesday, March 29
Vernissage: 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Thursday, March 30 through Saturday, April 1
12:00 – 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 2
12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
#AIPAD2017 #ThePhotographyShow @edelmangallery
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Catherine Edelman Gallery 