a great show of platinum prints

Saw a wonderful show last night, highly recommended to all who can make it
to The Municipal Arts Center of NYC (aka Urban Center) 457 Madison Ave at
51st Street before January 25. (5th Avenue stop on the E or V train... get
off at the Madison Avenue end of the station.)

Those who've seen Post-Factory #9 should recall John Yang. He did a little
book called "Over the Door: Faces from a Disquieting Age" in the 1990s --
culmination of many years wandering the streets of NYC photographing the
animals, humans and other creatures, also pure motifs, carved and cast on
the buildings, put there with the idea, John says, of making the buildings
less dismal.

The announcement says:

"This exhibition... showcases the ornamental stonework on New York City's
late 19th century brownstones and tenements with a particular emphasis on
what remains of the often overlooked faces, heads and busts adorning the
keystones of arches over doorways."

The cockamamie camera (long, like snake-- BIG snake) John used to make the
negatives is there too... Many of the prints are contact prints, others
had somewhat enlarged negatives. They are, as noted, platinum prints, and
gorgeous -- though I love the images so much I wouldn't even care if they
were SG. (One of them is, BTW, on my block..., #42 Morton. The others are
all over the city, from East Village to West End Avenue, uptown & down.

I told John there were some more he'd missed, at about #46 or 48. He said
he's got hundreds, there were just seventy-seven in the show.

The Urban Center is closed Thursday & Sunday. Otherwise, hours are 11 AM
to 5 PM -- also a nice bookstore on the premises... and then, if you MUST,
MoMA is one block over.

Or, www.JOHNYANGPHOTO.com

Judy
Received on Fri Dec 2 02:14:24 2005