On display: Hugh Holland's mid-70s L.A. skaters. ENLARGE
So many ways to digest the massive Photo L.A. exhibit that opened tonight in Santa Monica for a weekend run:
It's a chewy, multilayered slab of modern photography. A Cibachrome'n'platinum trade show. Smoochfest for rich, white photo collectors. Visual porn for Leica-toting photo geeks. Artgasm. It's the sort of show where you're as likely to see a young woman smirking moonily at Tim Archibald's Sex Machines as to hear a dealer coo, "We make the finest photography books that are made today."
I wound up strolling the packed Santa Monica Civic Auditorium making notes on photographers whose work I admired - and realizing I'll never be able to buy serious art if it means plunking down (at a minimum) $1,500 for a BnW print by a lesser luminary, let alone $20,000 for a dye-transfer William Eggleston print ...
An array of vintage platinum-printed portraits of native Americans by the legendary Edward Curtis.
The moonscape-like visions of old Beijing rooftops and Shijicheng towerblocks by Sze Tsung Leong.
Jeffrey Milstein's staggering images of jet bellies - you can see every oil-streaked rivet.
... And finally, a couple of wonderful collages - David Hockney's "Greg Reading in Kyoto" and Thomas Kellner's absolutely nutty contact-print "Guggenheim Bilbao," which out-Gehrys Frank Gehry in its fragmentation of space.
It's a fun show. Give it a look. Here are the details:
Friday, January 20th
Noon -7 pm: public hours
9 am: collecting seminar with Stephen Perloff
1 pm: Seminar �The Business Of Being An Artist��
Saturday, January 21st
Noon -7 pm: public hours
10 am: lecture by Eikoh Hosoe*
12 pm: lecture by David Hilliard*
2 pm: lecture by Jeff Brouws*
4 pm: lecture by Lucien Clergue*
Sunday, January 22nd
Noon-6 pm: public hour
9 am: collecting seminar with Rick Wester
10am: lecture by Paul Messier*
1pm: Collecting Photographs in the New Art Market**
3pm: lecture by Martin Parr*
$20 - 1 day pass
Includes fair catalog
$80 - per seminar
Advanced reservation required
$10 - per lecture
* Student discount are $3 off for lectures and $5 off for each one-day pass. Valid current student i.d. required.
* Tickets can be purchased at the event during public hours or through the
Stephen Cohen Gallery
323-937-5525
7358 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 11:32 PM
Stuff that grabbed me: 
