With the picture in a minute webcast, speakers were moving fast and my note taking was not perfect, but here is what I got down – I researched as much as I could to prevent errors, my apologies if I missed anything.
The concept for the event came from a project Agnes Varda had done for French television where she did 170 episodes called “un minute for un image”. Agnes wanted to how a single photo could impact people. Agnes felt that viewing photographs gave her space and time to think and wanted to share that with others.
Here are a selection of the presenters and their chosen photographs:
Alia Malley shared the photograph “Earth rise over the Moon” taken on 12/24/68 by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders and spoke about how incredible that moment was for all of mankind and how important the image was capturing it. She also mentioned how intriguing it is to think the camera only captured 1/250th of a second in time but how powerful that fraction of time was.
Andrea Liss highlighted Carry Mae Weems photograph “Moody Blue Girl”
Arpad Kovacs’s photograph was David O. Alekhuogie’s 2015 image “Bandana Hearts”.
PAC LA’s Director, Bayley Mizelle, talked about Alvin Baltrip’s 1975-80 series “The Piers” documenting the gay cruising spots in New York City before the Aids epidemic.
Cesar Rueda showcased a photograph by Magnum’s Yael Martinez.
Paula Ely shared Vik Muniz’s “Ecstasy of St. Theresa after Benini” 2015
Clare Kunny and her husband Colin Westerbeck spoke about a photograph in their personal collection which is a dual portrait of Colin by Joel Meyerowitz. They spoke about how the image was photographed and how special it is to them (There is more about this image below including Joel’s comments about it which I heard in a separate web cast).
Dan Solomon spoke about Deborah Turbeville’s American Vogue editorial in the 1970’s and mentioned there was a ‘sense of decay, Photos are about memories”.
Gallerist Douglas Marshall paid tribute to Lawrence McFarland, who passed this year by talking about the power of his photograph “Wheatfields Nebraska/Kansas border 1976”.
Elena Dorfman’s choice was an 1872 Eadweard Muybridge print.
LACMA’s Eve Schillo chose Yan Wang Preston’s 2017 image Egongyan Park.
Hiroshi Watanabe didn’t understand the “one-minute” aspect of the event, but he gave an interesting talk about a Robert Frank print he had owned once, “New Orleans Trolley 1955”. Hiroshi paid $8,000 for the print in 1992 and when he decided to sell it a few years later, because it had started to fade slightly, it sold at auction for $36,800.
Jeanne M. Connell showed a 1948 print of Solarized Calla Lillies by Carlotta Corpron. I was not familiar with Corpron, who a teacher at Denton College in Texas, but this image was beautiful.
Jo Ann Callis shared Daido Moriyama’s famous 1971 photograph “Stray Dog”.
Rebecca Senf chose a photograph by Ansel Adams which was printed early in his career, a 1927 print of Mount Galen Clark. I found her selection interesting because I have seen exhibitions of Adams’s photographs where multiple prints of the same image, from different stages in Adams’s career, are hung together to show the evolution of his technique. I also found it interesting to see which Adams image Becky chose since she has expert knowledge of most all his work.
Robert Berman selected a Julian Wasser image that I know and like of Duchamp playing chess with a nude model. I did a blog post earlier this year when Wasser passed away. I have seen video of Wasser talking about his life and photography before, he definitely lived life to the fullest and made some great images. I also liked the fact this particular image was made in Pasadena, California in 1963, because I was born there that year.
Former gallerist Stephen White shared a Bill Brandt nude.
Virginia Heckert, who is the curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum talked about Shigemi Uyeda’s 1925 photograph “Reflections on the Oil Ditch” from their collection.
Michael Hawley, Chairperson of the Getty Photographs Council, chose a Graciela Iturbide photograph, titled “Angelita” 1979. Listening to Hawley, he obviously has great insight into the medium and he said a couple good things worth sharing: “The art of photography are pictures that offer more questions than answers” and he reminded people to get to know their artists who are still here.
Long time Los Angeles gallerist Paul Kopeikin shared a vernacular photograph of a cowboy and a girl from his collection and spoke to how anyone can collect photographs which I thought this picture was an awesome share. Paul’s words reminded me of some of Bill Jay’s lessons on the value of a photograph back when I was studying at Arizona State.
I am thankful the Photographic Arts Council - Los Angeles put this event on, it had a lot of value.
