Category Archives: Culture

Guy Bourdin – A Message for You

When in 2006 the German art book publisher Steidl first released the book by one of the most famously provocative photographers, Guy Bourdin – A Message for You, it quickly sold out. The gorgeous two-volume series documented a period of Bourdin’s work from 1977 to 1980 with the dancer-turned-model Nicolle Meyer as his muse. Seven years later comes the second edition.

Bourdin was a notorious photographer; a precursor of in-your-face sexuality that now seems quite banal because of countless imitation and image overload. But not back then. Bourdin’s loud colors and unbridled sexuality of his subject matter were positively scandalous in the 70s. There is no denying that the women in his photographs look objectified. But it seems that Bourdin’s intent seemed to be reflecting and magnifying what he saw around him.

Rene Burri: Impossible Reminiscinces

The work of the Swiss photographer Rene Burri is well known, especially the iconic photos from his Magnum Agency days. Just search Google Images for Che Guevara and his famous shot of Guevara smoking a cigar is one of the first that pops up.

Though most of Burri’s famous images are black and white, he has done a substantial amount of work in color. The new book Rene Burri: Impossible Reminiscences (Phaidon, $100) explores this underexposed side of the photographer’s oeuvre.

Mike Brodie: A Period of Juvenile Prosperity

“I’d say most of my inspiration was drawn from old-school American values mixed with a little punk-rock enthusiasm.” – Mike Brodie in Q&A with The New Yorker I’d say that’s about accurate if by old-school American values one includes the freedom of the open road, the color palette and compositional story-telling sensibility of a Winslow…

Peter Hujar at Pace/McGill

So finely attuned is Peter Hujar’s (1934-1987) photographic voice that the eighteen black and white photographs comprising the mini-retrospective at Pace/MacGill are more than sufficient to present his world and his take on it.

A prominent artist in 70s and 80s New York, the at-ease portraits of William Burroughs, Vince Aletti, Paul Thek, John Waters and David Wojnarowicz included in the show are properly seen as portraits of friends as much as of art world luminaries; with that said, the head-on ’78 close-up of a cow mindlessly chewing on a strand of barbed wire is brutally economic in alluding to the harsh environment that was downtown New York City back then, AIDS crisis to come (to which Hujar himself would succumb).

Enslaved and Pallbearer at the Bowery Ballroom

It was the last night of their North American tour and Enslaved, the Norwegian black metal band, did not seem tired in the least. Coming off a stretch of shows to promote their new album RIITIIR, Enslaved toured the states with fellow bands Pallbearer, Ancient VVisdom and Royal Thunder. The Bowery Ballroom was sold out and most in attendance chose to stay in the main room, shirking the basement bar in order to hear the bands. Each performance brought with it a different sound from folk-metal (Ancient VVisdom) and southern doom rock (Royal Thunder) to Pallbearers brand of old-school doom and finally the prog-black metal that Enslaved have refined over the past 22 years.