The Fun of the Fair...

Things start off promisingly at the AIPAD fair with Alec Soth's "Fashion Magazine" portraits at the Weinstein Galery. However ....

AIPAD – The Association of International Photography art Dealers – opened its annual show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City last night, giving reason to both celebrate and be depressed. It runs through Sunday, April 13.

The celebration is a celebration of community, in this case the photographic gallery community, now celebrating its 30th year as a formal trade group. With 75 dealers often cramming as many of their wares into a small both as can fit, there are bound to be some good pictures, but if you’re looking for fresh ideas this is not the place. Nor is this really any sensible way to show art. After only a few booths it begins to feel more like merchandise and if I'm correct, a slightly desperate feeling of thwarted commerce hangs heavy in the air.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of greatest hits if you like, and if you have the spare half a day it takes to really do the fair properly – which means going through the multitude of bins that many dealers love to load the tables with – you’re sure to uncover some hidden treasures.

Here are some things that caught my attention:

Esteban Pastorino's work has appealed to me before. But I also like his new work (below) which keeps him one step ahead of the selective focus hordes and with a fresh new outlook and subject.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s before she died at a tragically young age, Francesca Woodman experimented with images dealing with self-portraiture and identity. Here a kind of reverse-Mapplethorpe gesture. (At Gary Edwards.)

A cute August Sander! (Who is about to be the subject of a massive show at The Getty.)

This picture, at Keith DeLellis, produced the greatest visceral reaction. It's one of many Edward Kelty circus pictures from the 1930s in the booth.

A 1967 Irving Penn portrait of Janis Joplin and Big Brother along with The Grateful Dead.

I see that Robert Polidori has been copying Tim Davis' and my ideas about photographing parts of paintings.

This was probably the most expensive, important, and stunning print in the show. However, several hours earlier another Weston nude fetched a new world record going for $1,609,000 at Sotheby's. So consider this a bargain. (At Gitterman.)