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A play about the relationship between Edward Weston and Tina Modotti does fall into my bailiwick, so how could I resist a comp for the world premiere opening night of Modotti on June 8? At the very least, the creation and production of such a work — like the bizarre Arbus biopic/fantasy Fur — bespeaks recognition of photographers as significant cultural figures whose private and professional lives merit our attention. So, as an index of photography’s status within our overall cultural consciousness, this is a certifiable good thing, on a par with the publication of biographies of photographers, though of course increased quantity does not guarantee quality. […]
Based on the precedent that Sotheby’s and Trustee themselves set in withdrawing selected contested works from the auction, it would seem that all those with work in the collection have standing that would enable them to challenge the disposition of the remaining collection, if that disposition takes the form of a sale. It wouldn’t surprise me if more of the photographers in the collection decided to make their voices heard on this issue as placement of the rest of the collection moves to the front burner. […]
The Polaroid Collection is inarguably a whole, much greater than the sum of its parts. So this auction is an amputation — which doesn’t render the remainder of the collection insignificant or meaningless, but inarguably diminishes it by reducing the complex synergy of its interactive parts. Indeed, I could feel the synergy leaving the room, almost palpably, as I wandered through the galleries. […]
Sotheby’s auction of the Polaroid Collection will start tomorrow evening, Monday, June 21, following six days of previews. The auction will have four sessions: the first tomorrow, starting at 5 p.m., the remaining three on Tuesday, June 22. I hope it goes well — for the sake of Sotheby’s; for the sake of the creditors on whose behalf Trustee John R. Stoebner obtained the Minnesota Bankruptcy Court’s permission to hold the auction; and, most of all, for the market for photography. Poor results would serve no one’s interest, including mine. Indeed, I’d be delighted to see this sale set new records for some of the photographers involved. […]
The publication of such a glib, superficial and ill-considered “psychoanalytic” attack on freelance activity beneath a sensationalized headline was obviously intended as a provocative act; I found myself impelled to respond. A great many of my professional colleagues and close friends — artists, writers, photographers and others — have chosen to exist in what this remarkable diagnosis so condescendingly calls a “lowly status,” and they don’t strike me as inherently any more neurotic than the average late-twentieth-century American. […]
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 SPJ Research Award 2014 Thought for the Day Ignorance is a condition; dumbness is a commitment.
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SPJ Research Award 2014
Polaroid Collection: Update 22
Based on the precedent that Sotheby’s and Trustee themselves set in withdrawing selected contested works from the auction, it would seem that all those with work in the collection have standing that would enable them to challenge the disposition of the remaining collection, if that disposition takes the form of a sale. It wouldn’t surprise me if more of the photographers in the collection decided to make their voices heard on this issue as placement of the rest of the collection moves to the front burner. […]