It is already September and the galleries and museums are full of many new photography exhibits! There were some openings last week, including ICP, that has the wonderful Peter Sekaer show, a moving 9/11 show, and a fun Harper's Baazar exhibit. Other new shows include the New Yorker Photographs at the Howard Greenberg Gallery, George Tice at Danziger Projects and Lisette Model at Bruce Silverstein among others. I try to take a day off from the archive every so often, and go to Chelsea or 57th Street to catch up on all the shows, and hope to do it again soon!

I got back a few weeks ago from Toronto where we had the 60th Anniversary of my mother's photograph, "American Girl in Italy". It was taken on August 22, 1951, so we had a celebration on August 22, 2011 in Toronto at a wonderful Italian restaurant called GRANO. It was in Toronto because that is where Ninalee Craig who is the woman in the photo lives. If you want to see any press, you can go to www.orkinphoto.com/news. Also, the opening at the Stephen Bulger Gallery was lots of fun, with so many people excited to meet Ninalee. She barely had a minute to relax and take a break, as she was so busy signing catalogs and taking photos with all her fans!

Back in May, APAG was invited to a photography conference in Warsaw, Poland, titled "The Archive as Project" and I wasn't able to attend. However, Grayson Dantzic went and had an incredible but short whirlwind trip, and absorbed every minute of it. He gave a presentation about APAG, and also discussed his father's work, who was Jerry Dantzic. Part of his background is Polish, so he really enjoyed also being able to learn more about his heritage.

I've been working hard on The Photo League film with Nina Rosenblum and Daniel Allentuck who are the directors/producers. We are trying to finish to coincide with the important exhibit about The Photo League that will open at The Jewish Museum in November. Many APAG members were also Photo League members, including Arthur Leipzig, Marvin Newman, Erika Stone, Ida Wyman, and the archives of Max Drucker, Sol Lipsohn, Sol Prom, Arthur Rothstein, Aaron Siskind, John Vachon, Weegee and my parents Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin. So, please go see the show to learn more about the Photo league and spread the word.

Best,

Mary Engel

AIPAD was already almost a month ago, wow, it felt like yesterday. It was a whirlwind of activity, seeing lots of old friends, and always meeting lots of new people. Of course, I saw everyone from the Howard Greenberg Gallery, but I get to see them in NY fairly often, which is great. However, I see some of these dealers only once a year, and would love to see them more often, such as Burt and Missy Finger, Wendy Halsted and Thomas Halsted, Catherine Couturier, Stephen Bulger, and everyone from the Stephen Daither Gallery in Chicago, including Stephen Daiter, Paul Berlanga, and Michael Welch. I went to two of the panels, the first one on book publishing. It was titled: PICTURES INTO PAGES: PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK PUBLISHING NOW. It had a stellar panel, including Eric Himmel from Abrams and Gerhard Steidl from Steidl, and it was fascinating to hear everyone discuss the current state of publishing, and the fast rising ebooks. How the ebooks will effect the photography art book market is a big question, but they are certainly here to stay. Then I stayed on for more, and next panel was about the current state of photography at museums. That was titled NEW CURATORS/NEW DIRECTIONS and included Brian Wallis from ICP, Matthew S. Witkovsky from the Art Institute of Chicago and several others. It was a very enlightening discussion that touched on what different institutions are exhibiting, and how they feel photography works with the other departments at their museums. There were several other panels that seemed really interesting, but I wasn't able to attend any others. For more info go to www.aipad.org.

More to come soon...
Mary Engel

Sam Shaw Book Signing - Tuesday, March 8

Tuesday March 8, 2011

Cocktails: 6:30 p.m.

Program: 7:00 p.m.

Admission: Free

The Players

16 Gramercy Park South

New York, NY 10003

Reservations: 212-475-6116

reservations@theplayersnyc.org

Join Lorie Karnath (who will sign her new book, Sam Shaw, available for purchase) and other guests as they discuss the influential photographer and film producer. As a chronicler of America in the 1940s and 1950s, Shaw's photos were featured in many of the important periodicals of that period. His pictures of a great Hollywood Era are legendary. (His most iconic photo is Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch over the subway grate.) Ever the maverick, he evolved into a film producer in the 1960s, producing many of the acclaimed films of John Cassavetes, helping to pave the way for independent filmmaking.

2011 is going to be an exciting year for APAG, as we continue to grow as an organization. We had over 30 people at our last meeting at ICP, and hope to find a slightly larger space for the next one. We now have almost 70 members, with most people in the NY Tri-state area, however, there is a small group on the West Coast.

We are planning a meeting in late February, and also two workshops and more archive tours. They were a big success last year, when most of us had the opportunity to tour ICP's archive courtesy of Chris George.

I read about a great organization that I thought people should know about called Camera for Kids Foundation. It makes a lot of sense as photography is something I've always thought everyone should be able to do. Everyone should have access to a camera, since the results are so quick and satisfying, especially now with digital cameras.

I also wanted to mention an upcoming show titled, Esther Bubley: Selected Photographs that will be at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park. Jean Bubley who is Esther's neice, has done an amazing job archiving and promoting Esther's work, and has also been an invaluable member of APAG. So if you have a chance to go the opening, it will be on Thursday, February 24, from 6 - 8 pm, and stays up until March 9.

Thats all for now.

Mary

I was glad to see so many members represented and selling in today's photographs sale at Christie's. Hopefully, the prices realized were satisfactory to everyone. The auction included:
Tseng Kwong Chi, Ruth Orkin, Arthur Rothstein, George Tice and Wynn Bullock.

I just read about the the new Ansel Adams app for the iPad, which sounds interesting, and plan on checking it out shortly. Still getting used to everything the iPad can do, but it is already exciting! The maps especially are amazing, reading books is great and easy, and of course seeing and working with photos is terrific!

Regards,
Mary

Sam Shaw Book Signing

APAG members are invited to a book signing with author Lorie Karnath and photo editors Sam Shaw Family Archives for Sam Shaw: A Personal Point of View, which was published this year.

Date: Friday, January 7, 2011

Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm

Place: Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

We hope to see you there!

I had a lovely lunch today with Julie Grahame at Danal talking about the future of APAG. We discussed the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation that have committed to help sponsor APAG and the various projects we are planning in the coming years. It is a terrific opportunity for us, and I'm thrilled since the timing couldn't be better to help APAG grow and realize the goals the group has had since its inception in 2003. One is a group exhibition and book, (that was spearheaded by Grayson Dantzic) that we will hopefully get off the ground soon!

I went to the Annual Aperture Auction Benefit and Dinner at Chelsea Piers a few weeks ago, which is a great event. There were many people from the photo industry there including; Howard Greenberg and his wife Ellen, Nancy Lieberman, Bruce and Emily Davidson, Bruce Silverstein, Joel Meyerowitz and many others. I sat with photographer Lindsay McCrum and the collector Henry Buhl. Also, at the table were photographers Lynn Saville and Ellen Wallenstein, who both had photos in the auction.

Later in the week, I attended the Women in Arts Luncheon at the Brooklyn Museum. It featured a conversation with Catherine Morris, the curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, and the artist Kara Walker. It was a wonderful exchange, and the luncheon afterwards was full of energy and excitement. I had the pleasure of sitting at Dr. Elizabeth Sackler's table, next to Audrey Flack, and also with Linda Stein. I am donating several photographs to the Sackler Center, which is exciting as I hope they are able to show them at some point in the near future, and because I have now been a Brooklynite for 10 years!

On a different note, I read a very provocative article in this month's Vanity Fair about the artist Larry Rivers, and the controversy with his daughters and some videos he made of them in the 70's. It is a very complicated subject. However, as the daughter of two photographers, I have firsthand knowledge as to what it's like to be photographed my whole life, but never exploited, and have strong feelings about the subject which is too lengthy to write about here.

Regards,
Mary Engel