If you can find a Sunday NY Times, you're in for a special treat. It includes a long article about Jeff Wall. For those unfamiliar with his work, he produces huge photographs on large format film. Many are backlit transparencies, measuring 8 x 12 feet and even larger. Some are silver prints of similar dimension. Much of his recent work is staged "street photography." For example, he spent over six months shooting a scene of young people on the sidewalk in front of a night club. When he couldn't find a good camera position at the actual location, he built a duplicate of the scene in a studio, hired extras to play the part of the young people, and recreated the original vision. He strives to bring the detail and dimensions of large format and huge displays to street-style subject matter. In his entire career he has only completed somewhere around 130 photographs I believe. They sell for about a million dollars apiece through his gallery. That being said, I found the reproductions in the Times to range from very ordinary to interesting. However, I suppose reducing that kind of work to newsprint in a little square is cruelly debilitating. The author notes that photography has "come out of the basement" in the world of art museums. And prices at auction for photographs have skyrocketed in recent years, while those for paintings have risen only modestly. On the other hand, he demonstrates a lack of real knowledge here and there. For example, when discussing how typical street photography is more blurred and grainy, he mentions Weegee and HCB in the same sentence. Apparently, unaware that the work of the two is totally different, and of course Weegee's documentary photography is anything but blurred and grainy. That being said, it's a good read. Don't know if it's on the web. Paul
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