David - Your impressions in general are similar to mine. I think Photokina is purely a camera equipment fair. If you want to see a showcase of fine art photography though and have never been to the International Center Of Photography (ICP-
www.icp.org) in Manhattan it is usually worth a visit. A museum purely dedicated to photography and usually has 3-5 exhibits and installations running at a time. You can always check the web site to see what is on display at any given time and Friday afternoons I think is the best time to go because the entrance fee is basically waived to "by donation" in any amount. Also, like the Paris Photo show, some of the exhibitions are interesting, others aren't so much.
I tend to stay away from galleries in general for the reasons you mentioned. Filled with capitalistic pretentious gallery owners who are only interested in spending time with you if you are there to spend big money. I visited quite a few once around Chelsea, which is where most of the photo galleries selling photos are in NYC. Again, much of what I saw was not so interesting in terms of content and they are all using buzz words like "Silver Gelatin Prints" to try and justify the high costs and quality of their wares. One gallery in NYC though which sometimes gets some interesting stuff is the Bruce Silverstien Gallery. Also in Chelsea and a small gallery in a nice old building. If he is not busy he is also more willing to chat with visitors than in some of the other galleries.
If you want to see a true indescribable phenomenon in the fine art photo world with ordinary looking photos selling for hideous amounts of money, then look up Andreas Gursky. Some of his financial success comes from his pedigree of where he studied photography in Germany together with the fact that he studied at a time when a number of the late 20th century German greats were coming of age.
May 23, 2012, 04:07:15 PM
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