Am I crazy?  Am I really suggesting photographs as an investment? .  I am talking about the work that Christie’s and Sothebys  photo experts love, but won’t offer for sale because they don’t meet their  financial  minimums.  The word nurture is not in their vocabulary. Elaine made an important observation. She knows about the ups and downs of the photography market. She has experienced it with me for over 50 years. Never try to paraphrase a writer, but this is roughly what she pointed out .

Now that the interest rates have lowered lower than a bass in Don Giovanni, an investment in an under $5000 photograph can give you a seriously excellent work. The hunt will  open the doors of photographic history which is always fascinating. These  prints will increase in value over the years..not in a crazy way of some of the  conceptual  contemporary work, but in a steady and realistic way.  I know., I live off the proceeds of my print sales.

There is one very large difference about this type of investment..it can bring you pleasure every day.  You can look at it in the morning; you can look at it at night; you can share the pleasure with your loved ones and friends. If it is  properly  prepared  and displayed it will last  longer than anyone now with their feet on the ground.

A good photographic gallery is the best place to get up close to this work…the actual print. The gallery people are surprisingly helpful with information about the history and era of the prints they show you. They will give you the same attention even with a modestly priced print. They want to cultivate people’s interest in photography.

A   first step  is to view the images  online. It has never been easier during the history of photography. My website is now approaching viewers from 50 countries. These viewers have the opportunity to be interested in my work… or not.  It would be boring if everyone liked the same genre. I am just happy they see the work. That is a first step. It is not the same as looking at an actual print.   You can look at a digital print: you can look into a silver gelatin print.

Try it, I think you will like it.

Have to stop now. I am washing the first prints of “Three Guys, Manhattan 2009” and they need me.

george

When I first started exhibiting my photographs I thought it odd that the galleries wanted prints signed on the back, but not on  the front . Evidently  this was the custom in exhibiting photographs.

Then I saw  some wonderful  Lartigue prints with his distinctive  graphic signature on the front, and realized that  it anchored the work. Now I do sign mine front and back. (Front in permanent ink; back in pencil) . It’s not a matter of ego; it’s a matter of authorship. You would not see a short story published without the author’s name below the title; you would not see a painting without the artist’s signature somewhere on the canvas.  At one time I thought that the signature would be a distraction from the work; now I think it adds substance,  not visual but historical. The image is always primary.

Today the issue has raised it’s pointed head again. I received a beautiful book which included one of my photographs “ Courtesy of…”   I was very pleased with the reproduction and placement until I realized that the title and my name were nowhere to be  found near the picture…A voice in my head said ” Go to the back of the book” ; another voice  said “Go to the back of the bus”. Sure enough, there were all the credits, I found myself flipping pages back  and forth in order to find out who shot what. A frustrating experience. It shouldn’t happen that way.

To quote my old friend  Jack MacAndrew of Prince Edward Island, “that’s the view from here”…..george

Hello ****
When I was in NYC recently for the AIPAD meeting, I went to a workshop presented by The Center for the Legacy of Photography [George Eastman House].

It was titled “What makes a photographic print a masterpiece?” There were some very distinguished curators on the panel, and when all was said and done it had to do with the particular person’s love for a particular image. It didn’t matter if there were processing problems, even some stains. You could tell they really loved the particular photograph they were describing.

I realised that we have become intimidated by the word “pristine” …never my favorite. So, when I got back to Montreal I started to look at some of my battered vintage prints , most of them negativeless due to my fire in 1966. One I thought you would like to see is “Fiction Department 1960’s” and I am sending you a direct scan.

I seem to be busier than ever, even though I am mindful of the wreckage of the financial system..there are some advantages to not being a “high ender.”

Hope you are well and enjoying the new grass in Central Park.

Sincerely,

george

New York City is my photographic home. That started in 1947.   The urban energy  makes my shutter finger twitch, the light is made for black & white, the people are made for a documentary photographer..enough text.

I made the photograph “Three Guys, Manhattan 2009 “ last week while in town for AIPAD…..george

Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

I NEVER MET HELEN LEVITT, BUT I HAVE BEEN ON THE SAME PAGE AS HER, BOTH  PHILOSOPHICALLY AND IN BOOKS.

SHE KNEW THAT THE RICH STREETS OF NEW YORK WOULD KEEP HER BUSY FOR AS LONG AS SHE KEPT PHOTOGRAPHING, AND SHE KEPT PHOTOGRAPHING FOR A VERY LONG TIME.

SHE’S GONE, BUT SHE IS NOT GONE…THE LEGACY OF AN ARTIST.

george

Matt at MOMA  1960’s                                                                                                         ©George S. Zimbel

There are many ways to view photography these days.  I suppose that online is now the favorite, but the thrill of viewing an exceptional print of an exceptional photograph is still special.  Of course you can do it in a museum (Bravo museums!)  but that is a quiet  procedure often aided by the good docents who volunteer or sometimes only by  a headset with a voice that tries to tell you what you are seeing.

The AIPAD  Show  at NYC’s Park Avenue  Armory is  a chance to see extraordinary examples of the photographic art, and if you have not been wiped out by the neo-capitalists, you can even buy a print that touches your soul. I am not being poetic: Every day I see my print of   Marcel Bovis’s  “Paris Bar”  hanging on the wall in front of my computer and it gives me pleasure. Every day. My kids pitched in to buy it for me in the 80’s. That’s a lot of pleasure.

I don’t know which if any of my work will be on view because each dealer has a concept of what they want to show in a given year. They have the  pulse of the market and they have to sell to survive. These great galleries represent me and will be happy to greet you at AIPAD: Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto  (Steve is the President of AIPAD),  John Cleary Gallery, Houston,  A Gallery of Fine Photography, New Orleans,  Fahey Klein Gallery , Los Angeles,  Staley Wise Gallery, NYC

There are many events connected to this show and they will all be listed on Aipad’s website, but I particularly want to mention  the gala for the John Szarkowski Fund at MOMA  because  John instigated my first  MOMA acquisition  with the question:”Why aren’t you in our collection?”

Hope to see you there….george

P.S.  I  received word that  John Cleary Gallery will have my Marilyn Monroe Portfolio of 9 prints, boxed with text.(#5 0f  21 currently existing..printed and signed by me. This portfolio was created at the suggestion of the late John Cleary during my exhibition “Documents”  at the gallery in 2000.  They  will also have my print “Matt at MOMA 1968.”

The last time I had the pleasure of sharing barbecue and talking photography with the late John Cleary, master gallerist,  he mentioned the famous radio personality, Paul Harvey who died yesterday.  It seems that the Cleary family and the Harvey family were neighbors during the depression. Mrs. Cleary told the Harvey family , they always would have a place at her table if they were hungry. (Often).

When Paul Harvey became a national  radio personality in the U.S. he would often come to Houston on business and would , without fail,  call Mrs. Cleary, and if possible,visit.   There is something good about this story and I just want to pass it on….george

Here is some information I want to share.  These days there is never enough time to be a caring human being. There is never enough time to do what has to be done. Not to mention that there is never enough money to find the time.  Somebody said the immortal words: “Just do it.”,  so I am having a cup of tea and  Doing it. 
First I bring you writing by a woman of consequence with whom I have lived for 54 years.  : http://www.elainezimbel.com/a-woman-of-no-consequence-by-whose-measure

Then I want to refer you to an extraordinary exhibition here in Montreal  by the unrepentant photographer/artist Robert Walker : Mediascapes/February 6 to 28 at  McClure Gallery of the Visual Arts Centre, Westmount Quebec.

An finally  to another unrepentant artist who was born too soon to be a photographer,  Kees van Dongen (1877)  but knew the streets better than many of us veteran Photo Leaguers.  He used his paints and   charcoal to get  into  our heads. If you can possibly visit the  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, check out the  Kees van Dongen  exhibition, the first major retrospective of the art of  van Dongen : Painting the City Fauve.  January 22 to April 19, 2009 .

It is always hard to realise that you are older than one of your idols.

John Updike’s New Yorker stories were part of my maturation (fancy term, but correct).  Now he is gone. I never did meet him, but was honored when  The New Yorker chose my Irish Dancehall,The Bronx 1954  to accompany  “The Walk with Elizanne” in the July 7, 2003 issue.

Alwin Nikolais- Henry St. Settlement Dance Company, NYC 1951      ©George S. Zimbel 1951/2009
Stand up!

Move!

Go in the darkroom!

Listen to music!

PRINT!!!!