Posts from the “Huck” Category

Daido Moriyama and the Aesthetics of Punk

Posted on February 26, 2018

“Pachinko”, 1982. © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation. Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery

Born in 1938 in Osaka, Japan, Daido Moriyama has become one of the pre-eminent fine art photographers of our times. As witness to the changes that transformed Japan after World War II, Moriyama used the camera to expose a side of his native land that few outsiders know, creating a body of work that is gritty and jarring, yet profoundly beautiful.

Moriyama first arrived in Tokyo in 1961 and began working as a freelance photographer in 1964. It was during the ’60s that he developed his distinct style, stripping the photograph down to its bare bones, embodying the pure D.I.Y. ethos of punk in visual form and providing a fresh new way of seeing the world.

He first came to the attention of the world in 1974, when his work was included in the New Japanese Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Since then, his profile has continued to grow, with his work influencing generations of artists who can’t help but imitate the iconoclastic master of the form.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Hawaii, 2007/2008 © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation. Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Art, Exhibitions, Huck, Japan, Photography

Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross-Dressers

Posted on February 22, 2018

Photo: Guilda, [one of a triptych]. New York, United States, circa 1950.

At the tender age of 10, Sébastien Lifshitz began collecting found photographs of men and women who refused to conform to the strictures of gender roles that demanded dressing according to an arbitrary set of rules. Here, in the privacy of their own space, they were free to don whatever clothing they wished and created a picture that stood as evidence to who they knew themselves to be.

Over the years, Lifshitz haunted flea markets, garage sales, junk shops, and eBay, amassing an impressive collection of amateur photographs of mostly anonymous men and women from Europe and the United States that date between 1880 and 1980. A selection of these works is on view in Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross-Dressers at The Photographer’s Gallery (February 23 – June 3, 2018).

“The subject of gender non-conformity and trans identity is something that feels very urgent right now: in our press, our social consciousness,” observes Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery. “We live with socially cultivated assumptions that men are one way and women are another when it comes to our dress, our actions, our accessories, our ambitions even – and historically there hasn’t been a lot of freedom in how we respond to these things. The more these issues are discussed openly, the more we educate each other and see gender as a spectrum.”

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

René Boivin photographer, Paris, France, circa 1930.

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Art, Exhibitions, Huck

Philip Trager: New York in the 1970s

Posted on February 16, 2018

West Broadway, 1978. © Philip Trager

In 1970, Daniel Patrick Moynihan convinced the Nixon White House to support a policy of “benign neglect,” wherein basic government services were systemically denied to cities across the United States with large African-American and Latinx populations.

New York City quickly became the nation’s most famous victim of “urban blight” at the hands of the state. The city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy as manufacturers fled en masse, while landlords hired arsonists to torch their buildings knowing they could get more money from insurance than they could from resale. The city fell into desolate and desperate straits. Yet within this horrific landscape, New York maintained its dignity and strength, becoming the site for the most explosive cultural movements of the late 20th century.

The city’s landmark buildings and dramatic vistas were a symbol of the potent energy that lay within, a vision that spoke to American photographer Philip Trager. He and his wife Ina packed a view camera and two tripods into their Jeep Commando and drove into Manhattan from Connecticut, where they lived at the time.

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West 122nd Street, 1979. © Philip Trager

Categories: 1970s, Art, Books, Huck, Manhattan, Photography

Q. Sakamaki: Buffalo Nation

Posted on February 9, 2018

A scene of Wakpamni Lake Annual Powwow on the 4th of July. In the late 19 century to the 1970s, the practice of native American religious ceremonies had been banned, even the use of their language in public. Now they can freely practice any faith or tradition, but the cost of losing their identity is big: most practitioners nowadays are the elder or children, not the youths. In addition, some Lakotas feel no sense about that they have the traditional ceremony on the 4th of July because of the historical relations between native Americans, surely including Lakotas, and the US government. But others would like to purposely use the day to appeal their culture and tradition, especially as many of Lakotas have served the US military. © Q. Sakamaki

Young Lakota native Americans join Lakota War Pony Races at Kiza Park, Pine Ridge, that environmentalists say faces the high risk of pollution in the ground water due to the nearby abandoned uranium mines and wells, often creating the risks of cancer, diabetes and other illness. © Q. Sakamaki

Established in 1899, Prisoner of War Camp #334 (aka Pine Ridge Reservation) is home to the people of the Oglala Lakota tribe, and has been ever since they were forced to abandon their native lands by the U.S. government. It was also the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, the largest slaughter of innocent men, women, and children on American soil – a fact the often gets ignored when the U.S. media reports on mass shootings.

On 29 December, 1890, troops from the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment went into the South Dakota camp on a mission to disarm Black Coyote, a deaf man, while he was performing a ritual called the Ghost Dance. The rifle in question went off, and the U.S. soldiers charged the Lakota people, who had been disarmed. By the time they were done, some 300 innocent Lakota men, women, and children had been killed.

The U.S. government awarded Medals of Honor to 20 soldiers in the massacre at the time – only to express “deep regret” for the slaughter a century later, as reported by The New York Times in 1990.

That regret did not extend beyond mere words. For the past century, the Oglala Lakota, one of the seven tribes of the Great Sioux Nation, have been forced to live at Pine Ridge, the nation’s eighth largest reservation in conditions of extreme poverty, enforced by government policy and the breaking of treaties, which has resulted in the loss of vast natural holdings for the Lakota peoples.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Lakota native American veterans and their family members tribute to the dead family members and comrades during the service, at Wakpamni Lake Annual Powwow on the U.S independent day. The Lakota in the Pine Ridge reservation, like other Native Americans, have served the US military generations to generations. It is very disproportional in terms of their population ratio, and somehow it creates an ethical dilemma to serve the U.S. military because of the historical relations between native Americans and the U.S. government. However, many of them have no choice since there are not so many job opportunities in the reservations. © Q. Sakamaki

An alcoholic native American man is arrested with the charge of domestic violence in the Pine Ridge reservation. Alcoholism affects 8 out of 10 families in the Pine Ridge reservation, as many cannot have a hope in their future. © Q. Sakamaki

Categories: Art, Huck, Photography

Patrick D. Pagnano: Empire Roller Disco

Posted on February 5, 2018

Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Deep in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, back in 1941, the Empire Roller Skating Center opened its doors to the world. Located across the street from Ebbets Field, back when the Dodgers were the hometown team, the Empire brought the joys of rollerskating to countless generations in its massive 36,000 square-foot space.

By the 1970s, a new style had arrived: roller disco, which brought the uptempo dance music of the nightclubs to the rink. Sound systems were upgraded and DJ booths were installed, while skaters brought their moves, creating a new craze that took the nation by storm.

And, by 1980, the media was entranced. That February, Forbes magazine commissioned street photographer Patrick D. Pagnano to document the scene. “It was the first time I had been to Crown Heights,” he remembers. ”Once I entered the rink I was transported to another world and was in my element.”

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Photography © Patrick D. Pagnano // Courtesy of Benrubi Gallery, NYC

Categories: 1980s, Art, Brooklyn, Exhibitions, Huck, Photography

Khalik Allah: Souls on Concrete

Posted on January 29, 2018

Photo: © Khalik Allah

Photo: © Khalik Allah

In the summer of 1998, Khalik Allah had come to a major crossroad after failing eighth grade. Dancing with a B-boy crew had been keeping him out late at night, and school had failed to interest him. Yet he understood the importance of educating himself. Concerned about his future, he headed up to Harlem and began to study with the Five-Percent Nation at the Allah School.

The Five-Percent teachings provided Allah with the self-knowledge and street smarts needed to turn his life around. When he graduated high school, he received a $1,000 scholarship that he used to buy his first camera. He took up filmmaking, then photography, with a mission to create an original style that he could use to create what he describes as “psychic x-rays” – portraits of the soul that lies within.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Photo: © Khalik Allah

Categories: Art, Books, Huck, Manhattan, Photography

Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style

Posted on January 22, 2018

Tony Vaccaro, Georgia O’Keefe with “Pelvis Series, Red with Yellow” and the desert, 1960. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Courtesy of Tony Vaccaro studio.

Georgia O’Keeffe is an American original, who created the life she wanted to live on her own terms, liberated from the constraints and constructs imposed on women during the first half of the 20th century. For over seven decades, O’Keeffe cultivated her public persona, challenging all aspects of the status quo, in order to live her truth in the eyes of the world.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style is the first exhibition to examine the relationship between the artist’s lifestyle and her work. Curated by Wanda M. Corn and assisted by coordinating curator Austen Barron Bailly, the exhibition features a selection of never-before-seen garments designed and created by O’Keeffe that became part of her signature look, along with iconic artworks and photographs by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Weber, Todd Webb, Arnold Newman, John Loengard, and Tony Vaccaro, among others.

“Georgia O’Keeffe was never afraid of standing out,” Barron Bailly observes. “She had a certain fearlessness and a conviction of who she was and what she needed to do to make the art she was called to make. This show demonstrates her identity as an independent, as someone who did not worry about fitting into a mainstream conception of what a woman should look like and how a woman should dress, of what and how a woman should paint.”

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Georgia O’Keeffe, Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock-Hills (Ram’s Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico), 1935. Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal, 1992.11.28. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum.

Categories: Art, Books, Exhibitions, Huck, Women

Debi Cornwall: Welcome to Camp America

Posted on January 17, 2018

Photo; Poolside. © Debi Cornwall

After 12 years working as a civil rights lawyer working with innocent DNA exonerees, Debi Cornwall made a major career change. Still invested in the lives of those wrongfully imprisoned for crimes they did not commit, Cornwall put down the legal pad and picked up the camera in order to address the issue from a different perspective.

While having dinner with a friend who represented Guantánamo detainees, Cornwall realised striking similarities between the prison and military industrial complexes. “The question of resilience after trauma and systemic abuses of power is something I have been fascinated by my entire life,” Cornwall explains.

“When I first started trying to contact them, I got zero response. Because who was I? No one wanted to take the risk on me at that point. On a whim, I decided I should try to figure out if I could get permission to photograph at Guantánamo to make a different kind of picture that will invite us to look again.”

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Photo; Marble Head Lanes. © Debi Cornwall

Photo: Mourad, French Algerian (France). Muslim Youth Counselor. Held: 2 years, 8 months, 1 day. Transferred: July 26, 2005. Charges: never filed in the U.S. French conviction reversed on appeal. © Debi Cornwall

Categories: Art, Books, Huck, Photography

Peter Hujar: Speed of Life

Posted on January 16, 2018

Candy Darling on Her Deathbed, 1973. Collection of Ronay and Richard Menschel. © Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, courtesy of Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Peter Hujar (1934–1987) is your favourite photographer’s photographer – a man who lived independently, crafting a life in downtown Manhattan that flourished between the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

Inside his East Village loft, Hujar mastered his craft, pursuing the art without the burdens of commerce. Liberated from the strictures of the market, Hujar created a body of work that is as broad in subject matter as it is refined in technique and as original in perspective.

A new exhibition, Peter Hujar: Speed of Life, looks at the work the legend left behind, three decades after his death. The show presents 140 photographs drawn from the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, the most comprehensive public collection of the artist’s work. Curated by Joel Smith, the exhibition adopts the traditional retrospective format while staying true to Hujar’s vision.

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Ethyl Eichelberger as Minnie the Maid, 1981. © Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, courtesy of Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Christopher Street Pier, 1976. © Peter Hujar Archive, LLC, courtesy of Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Huck, Manhattan, Photography

Marc H. Miller and Bettie Ringma: Amsterdam Polaroids

Posted on January 9, 2018

In spring 1979, Bettie Ringma and Marc H. Miller moved from New York’s Lower East Side to Amsterdam. The newly arrived couple had already become known on New York’s downtown art scene, taking “Paparazzi Self-Portraits” with the new Polaroid SX-70 instamatic camera, and giving the world a taste for instant gratification.

In search of a way to support themselves in a new city, they remembered a photographer hustling Polaroid portraits at Coney Island and decided to test the waters. “We tried first at Zandvoort Beach but it was too much work,” Miller recalls. “The sand was potentially deadly for the camera so we moved to the nightclubs and it clicked right away.

”For next two years, they made the rounds five or six nights a week, shooting anywhere from 30 to 100 portraits a night of locals at old-school bruin cafés, Turkish cafés, soccer bars, gay bars, discos, red-light district bars, and tourist traps. They describe the portraits as “tronies,” comparing them to 17th-century tavern paintings by artists like Adriaen Brouwer who painted typological portraits very similar in spirit.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, Art, Huck, Photography

Grant Ellis: Bless Your Heart

Posted on January 5, 2018

Formed over thousands of years of river flooding, the Mississippi Delta is an alluvial plain filled with dense, swampy jungles of cane, gum, and cypress. Early imperialists recognised the value of the land and began to clear it, draining the swamps, razing the forests, and building communities using slave labour.

Today, the region is one of the poorest, most undereducated and malnourished areas of the nation – yet it is also a place where creativity has flourished despite (or perhaps because of) rough conditions. The Blues was born in the Delta, and from its humble beginnings it went on to become of the most influential genres of contemporary music, giving birth to both rock and soul music. Add to this the literary legends hailing from the region, including William Faulkner, Walker Perry, and Tennessee Williams.

Hailing from the town of Cleveland, Mississippi, local photographer Grant Ellis spent the summer of 2014 creating a portrait of the Delta for Bless Your Heart, a limited edition from Kris Graves Projects. “I wanted to document what I saw in a place that reminded me of home,” Ellis explains.

Read the Full Story at Huck Online

Categories: Art, Books, Huck, Photography