New York/Astor Place

Alberto holds the mirror -- © Brian Rose

Been going to Astor Place Hairstylist forever. Only in New York. Alberto has one of the most personalized work stations in the shop. When I go to Alberto I always point to the George Clooney picture. That's what I want.

New York/Soho

Vesuvio Bakery, Prince Street, Soho -- © Brian Rose


Apple Soho, Prince Street -- © Brian Rose

Two storefronts, the classic breadmaker Vesuvio, now closed, awaiting its fate. And the Apple store, once a post office, built in the days when government buildings conveyed civic virtues. Within two blocks of each other on Prince Street.

New York/Williamsburg/Greenwich Village

View from our balcony -- © Brian Rose

As I walked across lower Manhattan on my way to pick up my son from school I passed by Sonia Sotomayor's apartment on Bedford Street a little west of Sixth Avenue. Sotomayor, of course, has been nominated by Barack Obama for the Supreme Court.


Sonia Sotomayor's building on Bedford Street
© Brian Rose

I've walked by here dozens of times, and attended the songwriters exchange at Jack Hardy's apartment directly across the street dozens of times, and it turns out that the probable new Supreme Court justice has been living quietly in our midst for years. Today, as i walked by, there was a coterie of photo journalists loitering on the sidewalk in front of her building awaiting her appearance.

New York/Opening

Opening reception for Journal/Brian Rose -- photo by Chris Gallagher

A picture sent to me by Chris Gallagher of Friday's opening. That's his dog Murphy on the floor. That's me, back to the camera, on the right. Art Presson in the blue shirt at center, Cervin Robinson to his right. No pictures, unfortunately, of my song performance, which came later in the evening.

The gallery will be open the next two weekends -- Fridays 5-8pm and Saturday and Sundays 4-8pm. Come by and say hello. I'll be gallery sitting most of the time.

New York/Jacob Holdt

The opening and performance at the gallery in Williamsburg went well. Scroll down for more information about the show and gallery hours. A decent crowd considering it was the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend. I performed a batch of my songs after the reception, the first time I've played in public in several years. I did around eight songs, some early ones from the late '70s, and a few from recent years. I was happy to see Cervin Robinson, the architectural photographer, as well as music friends Greg Anderson and Jim Allen.


Under the Manhattan Bridge in Dumbo, Brooklyn

A few additional comments from the New York Photo Festival. I think the most provocative work in the show was by Danish photographer Jacob Holdt, a sort of outsider artist, whose work has generally escaped notice in the art world. A couple of years ago his photographs made in the early 1970s while traveling around the US were published by Steidl. But his work has not been seen much on this side of the pond.


Photo by Jacob Holdt

Hitchhiking around the country, Holdt hung out with and lived with people of all walks of life, but particularly the down and out. His photographs show the squalor of urban and rural life in the '70s, violence, guns, racism. He even befriended member of the KKK, and photographed cross burnings. Holdt presents his work as political activism, and in fact, he has given lectures and slide shows for years since making the photographs. At the festival his slides were shown on several old-fashioned carousel projectors, their fans whirring, the slides click clacking into place.


Photo by Jacob Holdt

There is zero art gloss to his photographic method--the images are crudely powerful. Disturbing. And although I think the attention he is now getting is legitimate, I am somewhat suspicious of the high culture assimilation of his work. By all means spend some time on his website. Where does work like this fit into the history of photography and social documentation?


Photo by Jacob Holdt

William Ewing, one of the curators of the festival, argues that the photo history canon of the past few decades needs to be shaken up. That older photographers like Holdt have been overlooked, and that younger photographers from all corners of the globe aren't getting the attention they deserve. I am sympathetic to his curatorial quest, but remain uncertain where to place someone as strange and insistently didactic as Jocob Holdt. Perhaps, he is best left outside the canon. Someone to be dealt with on his own terms.


Dumbo, Brooklyn

New York/Opening

This evening is the opening of my exhibition, Journal, based on this blog. I spent most of yesterday hanging the prints--54 11x14s and one 40x50. The space, which is a storefront gallery, is beautiful, has good lighting, and looks especially nice after dark from the street. After the reception, at 8pm, I will be performing songs, old and new.

The gallery is in Williamsburg and is easy to reach from the L train Bedford Avenue station.


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New York/Photo Festival

Sleeping Soldiers by Tim Hetherington -- © Brian Rose

One of the strongest pieces in the show curated by Jon Levy was a three panel video installation by Tim Hetherington showing sleeping soldiers juxtaposed against a tense and emotional exchange on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Unlike so many video pieces that seem designed primarily to test one's patience, this montage of images, still and moving, gets to the point powerfully in a relative handful of minutes.


Carlos Ranc in St. Ann's Warehouse -- © BrianRose

I had limited time to see the festival, so I moved quickly through curator Jody Quon's exhibit, which deals with female identity. The other major exhibit of the festival, which I did not see, also dealt with sexual identity, gay males. These are very familiar contemporary art themes, the kind of thing I seem hardwired to resist. But, of course, dismissing whole exhibits may not be fair to individual artists, so I try to wade through anyway. Although I don't go for Carlos Ranc's blurry manipulations of Playboy models, I do like Katy Grannan's carefully posed work very much. I'll have to write about her some time in the future.

New York/Photo Festival

Robert Walker and William Ewing -- © Brian Rose

Within five minutes of arriving at the New York Photo Festival I ran into Bill Ewing, one of the curators, walking down the street. I know Bill from a long time ago when he was the curator at ICP. He was the first person to show my Iron Curtain/BerlinWall photographs. A short time later I ran into Bob Walker, a Canadian photographer who for years has been densely compressed, layered, street photographs.


Robert Walker photographs -- © Brian Rose

Recently, however, he has been photographing flowers and plants with the same tightly packed energy. The color hovers between naturalistic and hyper real. They are beautiful images, but without the softness or sentimentality so often associated with the subject.

New York/Photo Festival

Dumbo, Brooklyn -- © Brian Rose

The New York Photo Festival was held for the second year last weekend in Dumbo, the atmospheric neighborhood under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges in Brooklyn. My visit was fairly short because of a busy personal schedule, but I managed to see two of the main exhibits, and ran into several old friends and met a some interesting people. More on that later.

Walking around between the venues, it seemed that there were several photo festivals taking place simultaneously. One of them inside the galleries, and the other out in the street where dozens of camera wielding, badge wearing, visitors were taking pictures of Dumbo--and each other. I was one of these.

Another smaller group of photographers were paying no attention to us, or to the exhibits. They were photographing formally dressed brides and grooms on the gritty cobblestoned streets with the bridge towers and spans soaring overhead. Incongruous as it was--tuxedos, gowns and limos interspersed with the usual raffish New York photo crowd--it lent a surreal theatricality to the scene.


Dumbo, Brooklyn -- © Brian Rose


Dumbo, Brooklyn -- © Brian Rose

New York/Exhibition

The New Museum -- © Brian Rose

I've been busy putting together my show that opens in Williamsburg, Brooklyn next Friday, the 22nd. Scroll down for the announcement. The exhibit will--most likely--consist of 54 11x14 panels, each presenting an entry from my blog, running chronologically. These will be push pinned to the wall in two or three rows on the walls of the gallery. There will be text accompanying the photographs, as in the blog, but edited down to work better in an exhibit.

I am also including one image from my Lower East Side project printed 40x50 inches. This print I made at Beth Schiffer Labs, which has rental work stations and printers. It is a digital C print. The smaller prints were made using Adorama's digital printing service. Basically, you upload your files, and pick up the prints. Working this way goes quite smoothly if you have good digital files and use the color profile provided on their website.

I have been practicing the songs I plan to sing at the opening. I'm prepared to do about a dozen, some old, some quite new. I can't remember when I last did a full-fledged gig, but I am looking forward to this very much. Apparently, I can still play the guitar and sing! There will be an emphasis on songs about or taking place in New York and the urban landscape in general. A few of them relate to recent events--one about 9-11.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the New York Photo Festival, and will report back.

New York/iPhone

Apple Store, Soho

Finally succumbed to desire--and T-Mobile contract finally outlived--cashed in some American Express points for his and her iPhones.

Life is now complete.

New York/Prince Street

Prince Street -- © Brian Rose

Without comment.

New York/Second Avenue

Second Avenue and Houston Street -- © Brian Rose

There are not many places in New York where you look directly up or down one of the avenues--without standing in the street, of course. When the Whole Foods mega supermarket opened a couple of years ago at the foot of Second Avenue, it was a game changing event for the neighborhood. I leave it to you to decide whether it was a boon or the utter fall of civilization on the Lower East Side.

Whatever the case, the view up Second Avenue from the tables on the second floor is great, especially at dusk.

New York/Exhibition Announcement

New York/Chelsea Morning

Tenth Avenue -- © Brian Rose

The past few Sunday mornings I've been taking my son Brendan to Little League baseball practice at park near the Hudson River in Chelsea. Today was a washout, but on previous days I've wandered around the Chelsea gallery district--utterly devoid of people.


Tenth Avenue and W21st Street -- © Brian Rose


Under the High Line, W21st Street -- © Brian Rose

The High Line passes through this area, an infrastructural relic being converted to an elevated park promenade.


W22nd Street -- © Brian Rose


W22nd Street -- © Brian Rose


W21st Street -- © Brian Rose


W21st Street -- © Brian Rose


W22nd Street -- © Brian Rose

More more more. Where's my bailout?