Its been too long since my last post, and in the future I will try for at least once a month. I've been reading many blogs, and one of my favorites is by the fashion designer Paul Smith, and he writes at least once a week. He is also a big photography fan as you can see if you take a look at some of his old posts.

The photo world will be gearing up again in the Fall, however, the last few weeks, the news has been covering the glass negatives that were found and claimed to be by Ansel Adams. However, most recently, there have been articles stating that not only are the negatives not necessarily by Adams, but that the dealer representing the whole thing has lets say, a very shady past. Today, I just read that the Ansel Adams Trust is suing the man who found the negatives, who seems to reproducing prints from them. There is definately more to come on this.

There have been some great shows this past summer that several of our members were able to attend, and there is more information in detail on the website news section. Ida Wyman travelled from Wisconsin to Connecticut to attend a one woman show at Joie De Livres. Irene Halsman went to Atlanta to attend the opening of the Dali show at the High Museum, and Victoria Haas said she had a wonderful time in Arles, France for 10 days for the solo show by her father, Ernst Haas. There are many more solo and group shows coming up this Fall that include our members. I'm excited by the upcoming show that Ruth Orkin, Ernst Haas and Inge Morath will be in at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery called BEYOND COLOR that opens on September 16.

I'm also thrilled that APAG continues to grow, and we now have over 50 members including 35 archives, 15 photographers, several foundations, and our newest category, archivists who have been very helpful for the group.

Enjoy the end of the summer!

Best,
Mary Engel

Last Wednesday I attended an interesting symposium given by the The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) at The New York Times auditorium. It was titled Copyright and the New Economy: Issues and Trends facing Visual Artists. Eugene Mopsik, the Executive Director of ASMP started off the event by introducing Victor Perlman, who is their legal counsel. Perlman gave a history of copyright and also took some questions from the audience. He was followed by Brian Storm who gave an amazing presentation about his company Media Storm, and what they do. The question is what don't they do? He seemed to have the pulse on everything about the digital age in terms of creating media, getting it seen, monitoring who had seen it etc. I heard there was a lively afternoon session as well including many important people in the industry. Five members of APAG attended the event, including: Julie Grahame, Emma Winter, Elaine Schatt, Melissa Stevens, and Len Speier and his son Jonathan.

I also wanted to mention the work that Melissa Stevens and the Shaw Family Archives are doing to lobby against a bill that is currently pending in Albany. It would create a new law giving celebrities a retroactive right of publicity after death. They are working hard on behalf of all of us to try to make sure this doesn't happen, as it would curtail the ability of some archives to have the ability to exhibit and or license many of their photographs.

Also, Julie Grahame has started an online magazine titled a curator. It is definately worth taking a look at, and the latest feature on gay teens by M. Sharkey is very moving.
Go to http://www.acurator.com./

Regards,
Mary Engel

I spent most of the day today at the Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, as it is called, which is what I explained to my son Zac on our way there. I also told him about the long history our family has had with MOMA, beginning in the late 40's with Edward Steichen and the photography department, and later with curator, Anne Morra and the great film department who have helped restore three of my parent's films. In any event, Zac was off from school for Spring break, and we were going there to meet a friend and her teenage daughter. The draw was the Tim Burton show, however, as I was forewarned, it was mobbed, and really so much so that it was uncomfortable trying to even take a look at it. Luckily we started on the lower level by the theaters, which was not crowded at all. I think a lot of people missed out on this part entirely. There were posters of every film he has done, and some large Polaroids which were colorful, and the kids enjoyed trying to figure out what they were looking at in some of them, and how they were done. Afterwards, we went upstairs, which was a bust, except for the video shorts that lead to the exhibit, and the carousel sculpture in the black lit entrance, my son had had it. I led him to the Edward Scissorhands model, and we took a quick glance at the Batman masks and Planet of the Apes helmets, but quickly left to reunite with our friends. I was pleasantly surprised to end up in the photography galleries and saw at least four archives from APAG represented which included: Marion Post Wolcott, Philippe Halsman, Arthur Rothstein and John Vachon. The Avedon show was also impressive, and I'm looking forward to the women's photography exhibit that opens in May. However, what was wondeful was discovering all the other exhibits, most of them interactive including the Ernesto Neto, where Zac and his friend Zoe went into a sculptural environment made out of stretched fabric, or the bisected minivan by Yin Xiuzhen. We also had a chance to look at the Pop Art and Design galleries, and the interesting William Kentridge show full of drawings, and many video installations. We of course didn't miss the Marina Abramovic event on the 2nd floor with all eyes on her. It was such a pleasant day despite the crowds, which included a leisurely lunch in the 2nd floor cafe, and another rest in the sculpture garden, we left thoroughly satisfied, and thrilled to have been part of MOMA today!

I was just thinking about how busy I was last weekend walking up and down the aisles of the annual photography show, AIPAD which was held at the Park Avenue Armory. It is a wonderful opportunity to see a lot of work in one place, and of course run into a lot of people I work with throughout the year who are in the industry. It is always good to see dealers from out of state such as Catherine Courtier from the John Cleary Gallery in Houston, or Burt and Missy Finger from Photographs Do Not Bend in Dallas, or Wendy Halsted from the Halsted Gallery in Franklin, MI. It was also great to run into photographers such as Lindsay McCrum, Jill Freedman and George Tice.

A highlight of the show for me was The Photo League panel that was held on Sunday, with many Photo League members participating including; Ida Wyman, Vivian Cherry, Rebecca Lepkopf, Erika Stone, Sonia Handelman Meyer, Marvin Newman, George Zimbel and Artie Leipzig. It is very exciting that there will finally be a major exhibit of The Photo League that will open at The Jewish Museum in NYC, in November 2011 and then will travel to the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio and hopefully, other locations.
Regards,
Mary Engel

It is already February, so a quick update...we will be having a meeting next month as always at ICP, and also a panel in April. More information on both to come shortly. I got an interesting phone call today from Flo Fox who had a great show called Fotoflo that was on TV in the late 70's/early 80's that showcased my mother, Ruth Orkin, Ralph Gibson, Peter B. Kaplan and many other photographers. Some of these now historic shows are available on You Tube. However, she also told me about a situation that happened sometime ago, when she literally saved a photographer's archive, by pulling it on a pulley strung from her motorized wheelchair from the studio to a storage space, where it still sits today. What a heroic act! I mention this because I have received several calls and emails recently from photographers trying to figure out what to do with their archives, when they are no longer here. This is a monumental problem, because there is a tremendous amount of history and incredible work that should be seen and preserved. The recent purchase of the Magnum Archive and the transfer to the Harry Ransom Center solved their problem for the time being, but what to do with all these other archives? The Film Foundation that Martin Scorsese chairs preserves films, and we must find a way to preserve photography as well. A continuing topic APAG is going to try to address. We continue to strive to help archives and photographers with the multitude of issues that we all must deal with in this everchanging digital world.
Mary Engel
President of APAG
Director Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive

I wanted to mention a few must see photography exhibits that I recently attended. I was fortunate to go to the opening of "Who Shot Rock and Roll" that just opened at the Brooklyn Museum and is up until January 31, 2010. Since I'm a Brooklynite, it was easy to get there, however, I wasn't able to stay very long and missed Blondie who I heard was terrific and played about 5 of their classic hits. Daniel Kramer has a wonderful early Dylan photograph in the show, and I was happy to see him and his wife Arline. I ran into Grayson Dantzic, and Julie Grahame also made it out to Brooklyn. If you haven't been to the museum recently, and even if you have, it is always worth a visit. Go to http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/ for more info.

I went to the Metropolitan Museum (http://www.metmuseum.org/) a few weeks ago to see the Robert Frank show which is being exhibited until January 3, 2010. His photographs are terrific, and well worth looking at again, because of the depth of his subjects and the places he has been. There are interesting personal letters in the cases, and I liked seeing the contact sheets, but would have preferred seeing them larger, like the one at the start of the show. Unfortunately, I missed a panel discussion that was held back in September with Frank and Jeff Rosenheim, the curator of the exhibition, but I did catch them on the radio on The Leonard Lopate show on http://www.wnyc.org/

This past Monday I attended the Aperture Foundation (http://www.aperture.org/) dinner and auction for the first time, which was quite an event. It was full of photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Davidson, Alex Webb, Lindsay McCrum and many others and I had the pleasure of sitting with Edward Mapplethorpe and Michelle Yun who were both charming. There were also many others from the photo industry including Vanessa Kramer from Phillips de Pury & Company, Yancey Richardson and Tom Gitterman. The honorees were Howard Greenberg, Joel Meyerowitz and Susana Torruella Level. There was a silent auction followed by a live auction that Denise Bethel from Sotheby's conducted with her expertise and charm, and the entire evening was a big success. The goody bag included Joel's new book, published by Aperture titled "LEGACY The Preservation of Wilderness in New York Citys Parks" which I'm looking forward to reading, and I heard him today on The Leonard Lopate Show as well.

Hope APAG members can make the meeting next week at ICP!

Regards,
Mary

I had a brainstorming meeting this morning over coffee at Tarallucci e vino with Melissa Stevens from the Sam Shaw archive. It was very productive, and we ran through lots of possible topics, panelists and locations for our upcoming APAG panel. We had been thinking of having it in the Fall, but have now pushed it for early 2010. If anyone has any suggestions for it, please let me know.

Keep an eye out next week for most of the major photography auctions. Hopefully, the market will be a strong one. Photo Expo is also at the end of the month at the Javits Center from October 22 - 24.

We will have another members meeting in early November, and will let you know as soon as I secure the date with ICP.

Regards,
Mary