Monday, March 5th, 2012
Merce Cunningham in Totem Ancestor, 1942. Photograph by Barbara Morgan. (Courtesy the Estate of Barbara Morgan and Bruce Silverstein Gallery.)
Melissa Harris is Editor in Chief of Aperture magazine, editor of Merce Cunningham: Fifity years and Cunningham’s Other Animals, as well as the upcoming ePub Merce Cunningham: 65 Years, co-edited with Trevor Carlson. She is a Trustee of the John Cage Trust.
The irony is not lost on me—as a photo-editor who has devoted many years to a medium known for stilling, or capturing, time, decisive or otherwise—that I should be equally consumed by another medium, one that defies any notion of “capture,” that I am seduced by dance’s very impermanence, especially in the case of Merce Cunningham. Cunningham’s choreography never leaves even a storyline to hang onto in its wake, but rather evinces a kind of isness, as if each dance has an ineffable essence that might somehow be touched, experienced, and that remains vital and resonant long after the curtain falls, so that endings are somehow intangible.
Cunningham’s sensibility was as much about time as about space—or, better, it was about the coexistence of the two and, unlike what transpires in much photography, time is liberated from illustration in a Cunningham dance. Things don’t have to happen in any narrative sense. Time is more about duration—which is in part why John Cage, and the other composers with whom Cunningham collaborated, had such freedom. In photography, conversely, the precise moment at which a picture is created may make all the difference—from evidentiary images to sports coverage to street shots to dance photography.
Which gets me thinking about the ephemeral—an idea that rarely pertains to the photographic object. (more…)
Tags: AEon, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Anna Finke, Annie Leibovitz, Arnold Eagle, Babette Mangolte, Barbara Morgan, Beacon Events, BIPED, Bonnie Brooks, Canfield, Carolyn Brown, Daniel Arsham, David Vaughan, Didier García, Hand-Drawn Spaces, Imogen Cunningham, Jack Mitchell, James Klosty, Jasper Johns, Johan Elbers, John Cage, john cage trust, Knight Foundation, Larry Larson, Lifeforms, Lincoln center, Lois Greenfield, Margarete Roeder, martha Graham, Max Waldman, Melissa Harris, Merce Cunningham, Merce Cunningham: 65 Years, Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years, monogram, Nancy Dalva, New York City Ballet, numbers, Other animals, Other animals: drawings and journals, Park Avenue Armory, Paul Kaiser, Peter Hujar, Peter Moore, Richard Avedon, Richard rutledge, Robert Rauschenberg's, Shelly Eshkar, Stephanie Berger, Summerspace, Théâtre de la Ville, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Totem Ancestor, trackers, Trevor Carlson, Wendy Byrne, William Eggleston
Posted in Books, Multimedia, News | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Starting today is the AIPAD Photography Show New York at the Park Avenue Armory. Over seventy world-renowned fine art photography galleries will display museum quality work at what is now the longest running exhibition of fine art photography. Coinciding with AIPAD’s thirtieth anniversary, an “exhibition within an exhibition” titled Innovation will span the history of the medium from daguerreotypes to new media. Additionally, the Center for the Legacy of Photography will showcase vintage photographic prints from George Eastman House’s collection.
Saturday, March 28 features a full day of panel discussions with critic and curator Vince Aletti and photographer Bruce Davidson, among other distinguished leaders in the field. Click here to view a full schedule of events.
Aperture Foundation is a proud media sponsor of the 2009 AIPAD Photography Show New York.
The AIPAD Photography Show New York
Friday, March 26—Sunday, March 29, 2009
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, New York
(212) 616-3930
Tags: AIPAD, Center for the Legacy of Photography, George Eastman House, Innovation, Park Avenue Armory
Posted in Books, Events & Exhibitions, Limited-Edition Photographs | 2 Comments »
