02.28.07
Photo LA 2007 Highlights
By Susan Burnstine
For those of you who aren’t familiar with PHOTO LA, it’s a yearly event which takes place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium every January. Approximately 80 photo galleries from around the globe gather at the auditorium to exhibit and sell their artists. This years collection was extremely impressive.
I thought I’d put together a few of my favorites from the show.
My favorite piece from the show was Bill Jacobson’s New Years Day#4550, 2002. (sadly I can’t post a jpeg of this work since it’s nowhere to be found on the web.
This was the first time I’ve seen a Jacobson print in person and it was stunning. There’s not much about Jacobson on the web, with the exception of this information at his Gallery M+B
Luckily, I was able to locate a copy of Jacobson’s book “Photographs” which I happily purchased. Photo below.
I had the good fortune of viewing three of Andre Miksys Lithunian series “Buses” at an opening a few weeks before Photo LA. And I continued to be drawn to his work at Photo LA. Below is my favorite shot in the series.
Sadly, my favorite new find can’t be found anywhere on the web. Hiroshi Osaka’s toned silver gelatin prints of nude Polaroid diptychs were breathtaking. But you’ll just have to take my word for it, since all I can find was at this link to his Gallery
Mike & Doug Starn made an impressive showing, as always. Their popular snowflake series is beautiful, but I still can’t get enough of Attracted to Light.
Dave Anderson , one of my sentimental favorites, made a big splash with his series Rough Beauty and I couldn’t be happier for his success.
Hiroshi Watanbe (always one of my favorites) introduced his new color series from North Korea at the show. By the way, Hiroshi’s North Korea series was Aperture’s Portfolio Pick For Summer of 06 . Hurray Hiroshi!
Just in case you were wondering about BIGGEST SELLERS….
If I were to take a guess, I’d say Julie Blackmon
And Mona Kuhn appeared to be the hottest sellers at this year’s show.
Roman Loranc made an extremely impressive showing this year. This was one of my favorite photos of his at Photo LA 2007:
Last but not least, Tom Chambers work blows me away and he made an impressive showing at the exhibit. Yes, filmwasters, he’s a digital guy. But of all the digital artists out there, his work never stops amazing me. Personally, I’m dying to own this photo.
There were so many more to mention…There were two Salgado’s I dream of owning, several Keith Carter’s that would look beautiful on my wall…Maggie Taylor…George Tice…etc…
Oh, and before I wrap this up, Alex Soth delivered a great lecture that was one of the highlights of Photo LA.
In case you didn’t know it, Alex has a BLOG which is one of my favorite blog reads. Check it out…
My one and only purchase was this amazing James Fee retrospective book
But without a doubt, the BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT for me at Photo LA 2007 was THIS unexpected surprise. Heck, I only expected to research galleries I wanted to be in, so my visit to Photo LA 07 turned out to be the best birthday present ever (my bday was a few days later).
See you again next year for my Photo LA 2008 wrap-up. 