Tag Archive | Photography

Morrison Hotel Gallery Presents: CBGB — The Age of Punk

May29

Debbie and Chris
Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie (1980) By Allan Tannenbaum (All Photos of the Photos By Gail)

Do you like Punk Rock? I sure do. The true spirit of Punk really thrived in cities like London (where it was born), Los Angeles and New York back in the mid-70 to early 80s, before it became a commercial product and fashion statement that was appropriated by Midwest mall kids, and completely lost its teeth. Kill me. Fortunately, all of that great music still exits, and we can also travel back in time to the early days of the mosh pit with amazing photographs of the iconic musicians and style-makers who embodied the Punk credo. The place to see and live through those photos is the Morrison Hotel Gallery.

MHG CBGB Invite

As the definitive home of Fine Art Rock Photography, Morrison Hotels Gallery has just launched its latest collection, CBGB: The Age of Punk, and it is pretty sweet. I attended the opening reception here in Manhattan on May 17th, and the place was packed wall-to-wall with many of the legendary photographers who shot these photos, such as Bob Gruen, as well as a New York icons Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie. All of the photos in this post were shot while I maneuvered around a drunken, sweaty horde, so I chose to crop most them and you will just have to guess what they look like all framed and nice. Punk Rock!

New York Dolls
New York Dolls (1974) By Bob Gruen

Here’s the Gallery’s Official Blurb about the Collection:

Rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk rock bands rejected perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock and CB’s became one of the quintessential locations to perform. Bands had the freedom to experiment and bring their own artistry and social commentary, no matter how depraved and raucous, to audiences hungry for new art, music and freedom of speech.

Chris Stein
Chris Stein Being Interviewed at the Opening Reception

Contrary to what the series title would have you believe, not all of the photos were taken at CBGB, or even in New York.

Glenn Danzig
Glenn Danzig of The Misfits, a Band that Got Its Start Playing CBGB

Joan Jett
Joan Jett on Stage with The Runaways By Lynn Goldsmith

Patti Smith
Patti (1978) By Allan Tannenbaum

As you might expect, there a ton of great shots of Patti Smith, both on stage with PSG, and off stage. She was so photogenic.

Patti and Robert
Patti and Robert in NYC (1969) By Norman Seef

Here she is with her boyfriend at the time, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. So hot.

Patti Smith with TV
Patti in NYC (1976) by Frank Stefanko

Patti Smith Portrait
Patti Smith Portrait. Breathtaking.

Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols in Europe (1977) by Bob Gruen

The first wave British punks get their due as well. I got this shot on the wall behind the open gallery door!

Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious (1978) By Ebet Roberts

The Clash
The Clash in NYC (1981) By Bob Gruen

Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer of The Clash (RIP) looking like a Movie Star.

Ramones
The Ramones in NYC (1975) By Bob Gruen

And, of course, the Ramones are well- represented, as they should be.

There’s no telling how long this exhibit will be on public view in the gallery, but you can always view the full collection at This Link should you wish to make a purchase. All orders are filled on-demand up the run limit of that series.

Morrison Hotel Gallery is Located at 116 Prince Street, 2nd Floor in SoHo, NYC.

Advertisements

Modern Art Monday Presents: Aïda Muluneh, All In One

Apr9

All In One
Photo By Gail

In Aïda Muluneh’s photograph All In One (2016), a single figure embodies multiplicity through the addition of extra hands of different hues. Muluneh’s use of colorful makeup is inspired by body art from across Africa and allows her to physically construct a character out of her model. After living around the world, Muluneh (b. 1974) returned to her homeland of Ethiopia, where she founded the Addis Foto Fest, the first international festival in Africa. Though she was born in Ethiopia, she has sometimes felt like a outsider due to many years spent elsewhere. Her photographs, such as this one, bear the influence of that complicated experience, and are drawn from her series The World is 9, which is named after a saying  of her Grandmother’s: “The World is nine; it is never complete and it’s never perfect.” With this series, the artist also recognizes the capacity of photography to convey the multiplicity inherent in any individual.

Photographed as part of the Exhibit Being: New Photography, Up Through August 19th, 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Yes, It Exists: Mickey Mouse Head Camera

Dec7

Mickey Mouse Camera
Photos By Gail

In 1971, Child Guidance Products manufactured the Mick-a-Matic Camera: a large plastic body shaped like Micky Mouse’s head with a viewfinder in its forehead, a lens in its nose and a flash between its ears. The camera was designed for children, but photographer Stephen Shore used it throughout 1971 to take dozens of images, some of which appeared in the exhibition, All the Meat You Can Eat. These pictures marked Shore’s first artistic use of color photography.

Mickey Mouse Head Camera was Photographed as Part of the Stephen Shore Career Retrospective, on Exhibit  Through May 28th, 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Mickey Mouse Camera

Pink Thing of The Day: Olivia Locher, I Fought The Law (Rhode Island)

Nov17

I Fought The Law Rhonde Island
Photo of a Photo By Gail

Olivia Locher’s I Fought the Law is series of photographs that represent the breaking an eccentric law from each of the 50 United States. Apparently, in Rhode Island, it is illegal to wear transparent clothing.

Photographed at Steven Kasher in the Chelsea Gallery District.

Eye On Design: Rolleiflex Twin Lens Camera

Sep13

Rolleiflex Twin Lens Camera
Photo By Gail

Irving Penn purchased his first of many twin-lens Rolleiflex cameras in 1938. He acquired this one in 1964 and used it and other similar models for portrait sittings for the next four decades. The camera is topped with a modified Hasselblad chimney viewfinder and mounted on a Tiltall pan/tilt head above a table tripod of the artist’s own design.

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Modern Art Monday Presents: Composition-40-2011 By Shirana Shahbazi

Jul31

Composition-40-2011
Photo By Gail

Shirana Shahbazi (b. 1974) makes photographs in classic genres like portraiture, still life, and landscape. Alternating between abstraction and representation, her vividly colored pictures are made in the crisp style of commercial studio photography without the aid of digital tools.  She achieves her abstract compositions, such as Composition-40-2011 (2011) by photographing geometric volumes and pedestals whose sides are painted various colors, making multiple exposures of the same set of elements, and turning them between exposures to create an interplay between surface and depth.

This work is by an artist from a nation whose citizens would be denied entry into the United States according to recent presidential executive orders. This is one of several such artworks from the Museum of Modern Art’s collection installed throughout its fifth floor galleries to affirm the ideals of welcome and freedom as vital to MoMA, as they are to the United States.

United Steaks of America

Jan17

Meat America
Photo By Gail

Meat America is an eye-opening and artery-clogging tour of the American spirit, as told through meat. This photo by Dominic Episcopo, winner of a PDN Taste Food Photography Award, was snapped by me at the Photo Plus Expo, held at NYC’s Javits Center in October 2016.