“Richard Serra, Film Portrait,” (1977-2009). © Babette Mangolte, courtesy of the artist and Broadway 1602, New York

Babette Mangolte, originally from France, is an experimental filmmaker and photographer in New York City who has been in the art, film, dance, theater, performance scene since the 1970s. The above image of sculptor Richard Serra was shot on film (digital transfer from 16mm shot in 1977, edited in 2007). A year earlier, Mangolte, using her early experimental narrative formats, made the short film “Richard Serra Film Portrait” (1976).

Mangolte’s work is represented by Broadway 1602, one of several galleries representing contemporary art (not just photography) that will be exhibiting at the Frieze Art Fair starting Friday, May 10, through Monday, May 13 from 11am-7pm on Randall’s Island in New York City. Check out Frieze New York for more information.

“Heavyweight contender Muhammad Ali getting his poetic mouth taped by trainer Angelo Dundee during his weigh-in before the big fight with Doug Jones,” NY, NY. 1962. Photograph by George Silk. © Time Inc. Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery.

The year 1963 is the subject of a new exhibition of photos at the Howard Greenberg Gallery.  It was a watershed time in American political and social history:  civil rights protests, the start of Beatlemania,  deepening involvement in Vietnam, the hope and promise inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. followed by the shock of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The exhibition “1963″ brings together 40 photographs from both renowned photojournalists like Carl Mydans, George Silk and John Loengard to anonymous photographers who captured famous figures and events before and after the transformational year 1963. The exhibition runs  through July 6, 2013; an opening reception will be held on this evening, May 9, from 6 to 8 p.m.
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Installation view of “Monuments at Landmarks” at Art in General, New York, NY, April 20 – June 29, 2013.
From left to right: Capitol Reef Cement Dip (Facedown) 1 & 2, Moon Wave, Utah Maine Concrete Slab.
Image courtesy Art in General. Photography by Steven Probert.

Letha Wilson‘s work uses imagery from the natural world as a starting point for interpretation, construction and confrontation. A broad range of techniques and materials are used – photography, sculpture, installation, concrete, wood – in work that blurs the lines between abstraction and representation, landscape and architecture. The ability for a photograph to transport the viewer is both called upon, and questioned; sculptural intervention attempts to compensate for the photograph’s failure to encompass the physical site it represents.  Landscape photography as a genre is approached with equal parts reverence and skepticism.  Letha Wilson’s work is on view at Art in General until June 29th. She is currently represented by Higher Pictures in New York City. All images below courtesy of Letha Wilson.

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All Images © Glen Luchford / Dashwood Books

Damaged Negatives,  the new book by fashion photographer Glen Luchford, makes something beautiful out of what sounds like a disaster for any photographer: Several of Luchford’s negatives, including images of Kate Moss and other models, were damaged by water.

“I put the images in storage for two weeks, which turned into two months. The entire storage unit flooded and the owner didn’t tell anyone, so by the time I arrived, the images were just mostly gone or in a state of high deterioration.” But Luchford, who has shot for Italian Vogue, The Face, Prada, Saint Laurent among other clients, was intrigued by the way water subverted his images.  Beautiful faces are obscured by oxidation; couture clothing appears burned. Luchford has said in interviews that he isn’t sure why he treated the negatives so carelessly in the first place, but once they were transformed, he wanted to exhume record them.

Damaged Negatives is published by Dashwood Books, the independent bookstore and publisher, in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.

“Maiike.”  All Images © Malcolm Brown.

Malcolm Brown‘s first exhibition of “The Hundred Dollar Portrait” (an excellent use of Tumblr, in my opinion) opened Friday, May 3 at Poor John’s in Toronto, Canada, and runs through May 31. What is the “Hundred Dollar Portrait?” It is a personal project Brown began working on in 2012, and is continuing. Bring three changes of clothes (something you wear a lot, something that stands out, and something with sex appeal), and let Brown work his camera magic to produce a variety of images of YOU. Contact Brown if you would like one of your own. Results may vary.

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