Adventurers and artists: photo l.a. focuses its lens on distant shores - Show news - Brief Article

observes ANGELES -- Photographers are known many times to be adventurers, taking their cameras to exotic, unexplored and sometimes dangerous locales. Photography dealers, too, may be adventurers, taking a chance upon the unexplored territory of introducing novel artists and new art genre to the collecting marketplace.

In January, photo l.a., the largest photographic exposition in the West, was filled with adventuresome examples of both: images that took the viewer to of recent origin and foreign territory and art dealers who were exploring the marketplace for cutting-edge work. Fair visitors were saluteed with thousands of images, from the earliest pioneering photographs of the mid-19th hundred to modern-day, experimental, photo-based art.

They saw photographs from distant shores--of dust swirling around a dutch of Afghanistan women artful in a state of natures on lava flows, a religious center built hard into a precipitous rocky mountainside in Tibet, playful Cuban male childs at a swimming hole, guerrillas in Morocco, a courtyard in Prague, and shepherds in Crete as well as images of erected surrealistic "shores," of a little lad towering over a landscape, a teacup with a built-in sink drain and a self "portrait" of an artist as a one-armed statue.

Held Jan. 16 to 19 in Santa Monica, the 12th-annual outing of photo l.a. featured more [i]or[/i] less 86 galleries and photography dealers, volume publishers and non-profit photography organizations (up 18 percent from last year). "We just had cyclopean crowds," said photo l.a. organizer Stephen Cohen, proprietor of Stephen Cohen Gallery in sees Angeles. He estimated attendance at 6500 also an increase from 2002

As always, tried-and-true period, novel and contemporary masters' works by means of well-known photographers made up the majority of the images upon display. Peering down from walls were photos by means of Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Horace Bristol, compassion Barnhard, Edward Curtis, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, Josef Sudek and Edward Weston, among many luminary artists' works. Lynn Geesaman's popular ethereal landscapes were upon view at several galleries' booth as were the elegant florals of Tom Baril.

And many noted contemporary photographers attended the art fair, including Mark Citret, Jeff Dunas, David Foko Bruce Davidson, Debbie Fleming Caffery, and Lauren Greenfield, the latter three all worked as speakers during the three-day circumstance Rixon Reed, director of Photo-Eye in Santa Fe NM wasn't surprised. "This fair is a magnet for anyone interested in art photography, including photographers themselves."

Fleming Caffery and Davidson were also well exhibited at the fair, with several dealers each showcasing their photographs and having them sign works for collectors. Fleming Caffery's images were not absented by several exhibitors, including Photo-Eye. "If there is a publication, particularly if it as gorgeous as Debbie's is, it is always easier to advance the artist and her work," observ Re Photographer Davidson agreed. "My photographs are acquired all above the world, but because of these sum of two units new books, I guess my work is being talked about flat more," said Davidson during a momentary break in his book-signing chores.

more [i]or[/i] less dealers utilized photo l.a. to introduce fresh faces to Los Angeles collectors. The artists are not always young and au courant. For example, said Jiri Jaskmanicky, director of the Czech Center for Photography in Prague, "this time we [brought] novel names for the United States, on the other hand these are well-known photographers in our geographical division such as Vaclav Jirasek [whose works are priced from $1200 to $1600] and Jan Svoboda." Santa Monica dealer Peter Fetterman and of recent origin York-based Coplan Gallery both not awayed images by photojournalist Steven McCurry including his famed portrait of a young, green-ey Afghan girl that graced National Geographic's cover

Tony Decaneas, a photographer and holder of Panopticon of Waltham, Mass., exhibited established photographers Ernest C Withers and Bradley Washburn on the contrary also introduced Constantine Manos to West Coast photo enthusiasts. "This is the first time we've at any time taken the gallery away from place of abode to show at an art fair," said Decaneas, who also not awayed some of his own work. "It's about time. I wanted to find a abundant broader representation for Ernest Withers and Bradley Washburn. We wanted to display all of our artists in deepness and we're looking for more galleries to exhibit this work."

Manos, a Greek-American who grew up in southern Carolina, lived in Greece in the early 1960 where he sought without pristine villages and people who were still living as they had done for centurys of years. He captured images that appear untouched by means of time, helped visually by his insistence that photographs be compos in the viewfinder--not the darkroom or upon today's computer screens.

Yancey Richardson Gallery of novel York showed an extensive collection of large-scale brightly-colored photographs by dint of Andrew Moore, along with the gallery's usual roster of contemporary and recent artists. "Moore has always had an extensive interest in architecture, and he keeps to photograph areas poised for change," explained Richardson. Moore has discharge a series on the of advanced age 42nd Street theaters before the Times Square renovations, and another series in Havana. "Now he is doing a material substance of work in Russia," said Richardson. "It's been true well received. Our show of his work [in fresh York] had five [positive] reviews."