The plazas in Lincoln Center have been renovated and this was my first chance to get a glimpse of them.

The Barclays Grove is very nicely done. It [...]]]> On assignment yesterday in New York City, a twelve-hour day, but a break in the action afforded a balcony view of the Met from Avery Fisher’s balcony:

Die Walküre intermission. Metropolitan Opera House, NYC; May 2, 2011. Click images to enlarge.

The plazas in Lincoln Center have been renovated and this was my first chance to get a glimpse of them.

Barclays Capital Grove, Hearst Plaza, Lincoln Center.

The Barclays Grove is very nicely done. It feels as if it has been slid onto a tray made of smooth stone, giving the grove the sense of being lighter than gravity would normally allow. The stone’s edges create bench seating on two levels. As dusk descended the tree uplights came on and accent lights appeared beneath the benches creating a space which at night will hold its own against Lincoln Center’s centerpiece fountain.

The design work was done by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with FXFOWLE Architects.

S(3) was great and easily held its own against the contemporary work across the hall. I’m always amazed at how dark prints from this era look but always astounded by the detail, the [...]]]> I was at the Met yesterday afternoon to see the the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand and Guitar Heroes exhibits.

S(3) was great and easily held its own against the contemporary work across the hall. I’m always amazed at how dark prints from this era look but always astounded by the detail, the tonality, and the local contrast. They feel like all of the range is in the bottom quarter tones, little is blown out, and there are specular highlights to keep them from getting too flat.

Me in The Steerage, by Stieglitz, 1907.

Me in Stieglitz by Paul Strand, 1929.

What surprised me the most was Steichen’s work. I’ve seen Stieglitz and Strand countless times so there’s a bit of fatigue there. Steichen’s early work is sumptuous – he really, of the three, had forged his own printing style and pushed the limits of what could be done.

The Flatiron by Edward Steichen, 1904. Gum bichromate over platinum.

One corner of the Steichen room has a half-dozen or so autochromes. This was one of the earliest color processes which uses colored potato starch to act as color filters. Color images this old always feel special, as if they shouldn’t exist and in the act of seeing them you are discovering them for the world.

Mrs. Selma Schubart by Steichen or maybe Stieglitz (not known which), 1907.

Rodin - The Eve, by Steichen, 1907.

From the S(3) show on the second floor, across the building, and down to a gallery below grade you’ll find Guitar Heroes.

The crowd at Guitar Heroes with an 1870 Bini.

The exhibit looks at three luthiers in NYC; John D’Angelico, James D’Aquisto, and John Monteleone, but provides historical context going to back northern Italy in the 1500′s. I tend to gravitate toward simple and unadorned in guitars so my favorite was a James D’Aquisto New Yorker made for Paul Simon.

Oval Hole New Yorker, Archtop Guitar, by James D'Aquisto.

Guitar Heroes, as an exhibit, relies on the visual over the aural. It’s beautiful but that’s not enough. You wish there was a way to give a sense of how one guitar sounds versus another or even feels. The Met has a gone a long way to fill this gap with a free iTunes app, an extensive web site, and the option to rent an audio tour but a guitar exhibit without a shared sense of the music… something’s missing.

One other new item on display at the Met is the Roman Mosiac from Lod, Israel. It was discovered in 1996 during a highway construction project, it dates back to A.D. 300, and it will be at the Met only through early April.  It’s a real treat – fun, playful, vibrant – and as unique for what it does not portray (people) and as for what it does (animals like the giraffe and rhinoceros.)

Roman Mosaic, Lod, Israel. A.D. 300.

Shepard Fairey and the AP have settled their differences regarding Fairey’s famous Obama poster. Sounds like they are going into business together:

“The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the [...]]]>

Shepard Fairey and the AP have settled their differences regarding Fairey’s famous Obama poster. Sounds like they are going into business together:

“The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs. The parties have agreed to additional financial terms that will remain confidential.”

The question is – where does this leave the photographer, Manny Garcia? He has contended that he was not on AP’s staff when the image was taken, AP says he was.

My blog post from October, 2009: After the Fairey Dust Settles.

Or so went the jingle at every Loews theater, before every screening, in New York City in the late 80′s. It was best sung in a loud falsetto and it always got laughs from the audience.

Long before this though Loews had another chain with different [...]]]> Sit back and relax; enjoy the show!

Or so went the jingle at every Loews theater, before every screening, in New York City in the late 80′s. It was best sung in a loud falsetto and it always got laughs from the audience.

Long before this though Loews had another chain with different ambitions. Rather than a corporate feeling theater in every neighborhood, it was a small collection of movie palaces, done on such a scale that they would overwhelm and amaze the audience before they even sat down. There were five of these “Wonder Theaters” in the New York area, designed by Rapp and Rapp in a Baroque/Rococo style.

I photographed the Loew’s Jersey last fall but the photos just ran in the September 2010 issue of New York Spaces. Located in Journal Square, the heart of Jersey City; the theater opened in the fall of 1929, right before the crash. Legend has it that a young unknown, Frank Sinatra, took a date there in 1933 to see a movie and a performance by Bing Crosby. He decided then and there that he too would be a star.

The theater has only three levels but that belies the enormous space within. It seats 3100.

Loew's Jersey Theater. Jersey City, NJ. November, 2009.

Lobby.

Staircase to the balcony.

Column detail and one of the motifs throughout the building.

Main hall, orchestra level seating.

Cherub sculpture overlooking the balcony.

The topmost dome, looking straight up. The scale is beyond words (it took three 17mm frames to capture this.)

The theater was saved from demolition in the 1993. It currently operates as a non-profit performance space which is doing its best to slowly renovate the massive space. To be inside it truly transports you through time. It turns out that cuts both ways. As we worked on the assignment, the building manager told us that the distinctive hue we were seeing was not intentional but the residue of the thousands of people per day smoking during the theater’s first few decades.

To see more images and to see these images larger visit my web site - I have added a Loew’s Jersey gallery and some of the photos are now in rotation on the home page.

You can find one behind the scenes image in this blog post from last year.

ICP: The Mexican Suitcase

NYT: Images of War, Finally Unpacked

Exiled Republicans marching down the beach to an interment camp in Le Barcarès, France. March 1939. Robert Capa, ©Estate of Cornell Capa/ICP/Magnum

The contents of the Mexican Suitcase (Spanish Civil War photos by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour; lost for decades but recently rediscovered) are now on display at the International Center of Photography in New York.

ICP: The Mexican Suitcase

NYT: Images of War, Finally Unpacked

NYT: Lens – Spain’s Civil War, Inside a Suitcase

via, aphotoeditor.com.

Museumofbadart.org, based in the Boston area, the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms.