Cover photo by Ryan Mcginley

Critic Philip Gefter, whose collection of essays Photography After Frank was recently published by Aperture, will be speaking at The Detroit Institute of Arts Friday June, 4th.

Gefter was on staff at the New York Times for more than fifteen years where his roles included page one picture editor and senior picture editor for culture. Photography After Frank compiled texts written exclusively for the book as well as Gefter’s previous critical writings and articles written for the NY Times about such seminal photographers as Lee Friedlander, Richard Misrach, Ryan Mcginley, Katy Grannan, and of course, Robert Frank.

The event will include a book signing and the talk will examine the work of Frank and his relationship to Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac among others.

Philip Gefter Talk
Friday, June 4th, 2010 7:30PM

Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan
(313)833-7900

On the occasion of Aperture’s release of The Düsseldorf School of Photography, a comprehensive assessment of the influential photography movement, Aperture and the photography department in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design presented artist Thomas Ruff and writer, former picture editor, Philip Gefter, on February 12th at Aperture Gallery and Bookstore.

The artist’s talk focuses on Ruff’s early work and participation in the Düsseldorf School as well as his more recent work including images featured in the artist’s JPEGS monograph.

In this clip, Thomas Ruff goes through several key bodies of work following his professor Bernd Becher’s advice to always reflect on the photographic medium. Ruff speaks about his Portrait series which he started at the Düsseldorf Academy and explains how large scale has emancipated photography on the contemporary art scene in the 1980′s. Ruff also touches on the matter of objectivity versus subjectivity as well as on the notion of authorship with his Stars series. Finally when speaking of Jpegs, he focuses on the structure of images he finds on the internet and their distribution. By enlarging them, Ruff also plays with the perception of these images when the pixel patterns become sublime geometric displays of color.

To watch the full talk click here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Copyright Thomas Ruff

Aperture Presents: An Exclusive Conversation Between Thomas Ruff and Philip Gefter

Aperture and the photography department in the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design will be presenting an exclusive conversation between artist Thomas Ruff and writer, former picture editor, and author of Photography After Frank, Philip Gefter, on Friday, February 12th, 2010.

The event will in-part celebrate Aperture’s publication of Thomas Ruff’s monograph JPEGS as well as the release of Aperture’s The Dusseldorf School of Photography, a survey of the influential photography movement that includes Ruff’s work.

The conversation will focus on Ruff’s relationship to his JPEGS series and his newest work in two series: zycles and cassini on view at David Zwirner Gallery. There will be a book signing with both speakers following the event.

Thomas Ruff and Philip Gefter in Conversation plus Book Signing
Friday, February 12, 6:30pm

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York

Due to limited capacity, this free event is RSVP-only.
Please send name to reserve at: RSVP@aperture.org

View Thomas Ruff’s JPEGS

View Philip Gefter’s Photography After Frank

Robert Frank’s infamous body of work, The Americans, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication opened this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City . The show, titled Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, features the most in-depth look at arguably the most important photo book published since World War II and includes over 100 photographs, 17 books, 15 manuscripts and 22 contact sheets as well as a short film made by Frank for this exhibition. This show explores not only the roots of America as captured by one of photography’s legends, but also functions as an exploration on the photo book itself as the viewer can take note of Frank’s intentional sequencing and organization. For all those interested in the photo book, this show is not to be missed! The Museum will also host many events including An Evening With Robert Frank, already sold out, in which the artist will be in conversation with curators Jeff L. Rosenheim and Sarah Greenough about his career in photography and film. Through the month of October, the Met will screen films from the artist as well, click below to view schedule of showtimes.

Click here to view a full schedule and descriptions of programming for Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans at the Met.

Philip Gefter, author of Photography After Frank, speaks to NPR’s Daily Picture Show about the pivotal influence of Robert Frank in the field. Click here to stream audio. Gefter also wrote a piece titled Robert Frank’s America, published on The Daily Beast, click here to read more.

Click here to purchase your copy of Photography After Frank through Aperture.

An Evening With Robert Frank
Friday, October 9, 2009, 6:00 PM
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans
Tuesday, September 22, 2009—Sunday, January 3, 2010
Galleries for Drawings, Prints, and Photographs and The Howard Gilman Gallery, 2nd floor
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York City

Monday June 29, New York Times writer and former picture editor Philip Gefter will introduce his new publication, Photography After Frank at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This title presents the tale of contemporary photography starting with a pivotal moment as Robert Frank’s seminal work in the fifties; Gefter then connects the dots of photography’s transformation into what it is today. The book signing will immediately follow the lecture in the adjacent Director’s Roundtable Garden.

Photography After Frank, Essays by Philip Gefter
Lecture and Book Signing

Monday, June 29, 2009  7:00 pm

FREE

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Brown Auditorium
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
(323) 857-6000

Join author Philip Gefter at SF Camerawork in San Francisco as he discusses his latest title Photography After Frank, a collection of essays published by Aperture. Gefter traces the evolution of photography from Robert Frank’s work, The Americans, to the present day. This highly-anticipated title draws both from work published by Gefter in the New York Times as well as essays written specifically for the book. Don’t miss your chance to meet one of the most insightful contributors to the field of photography.

Photography After Frank, Philip Gefter
Lecture and Book Signing
Thursday, April 30, 2009, 7:00 pm

FREE

SF Camerawork
657 Mission Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, California
(415) 512-2020

For those on the east-coast, Philip Gefter will be in conversation with Andy Grundberg in New York on May 17, 2009. Click here for full event details.

Click here to purchase your copy of Photography After Frank through Aperture and save 30%.

Lawnmower, Pittsburgh, 2004 © Paul Graham

A Conversation with Photographer Paul Graham
Monday, February 9, 7:00 pm
Visual Arts Theater
School of Visual Arts
333 West 23 Street
New York, New York
212 592 2011

FREE

The School of Visual Arts and Dear Dave magazine present photographer Paul Graham in dialogue with New York Times writer Philip Gefter.

British-born Paul Graham is recognized for his innovative and experimental contextualization of images and his unique way of assigning meaning to simple aspects in life. His latest work, A Shimmer of Possibility, which will be on view at MoMA from February 4–May 18, 2009 is a selection from a series of photographic works, illustrating the photographer’s particularly tender observation of daily life. Each simple, but structurally inventive series of images, focuses on one subject and each image builds upon the next to create a narrative, which allows us to get a glimpse into unanticipated moments in the lives of each individual.

The dialogue is the first in series of writer Philip Gefter’s conversations exploring contemporary photography among noted artists, critics, curators and editors.

A collection of his essays will be published in April by Aperture as Photography After Frank.

Catch the world premiere of Disfarmer, a work by Dan Hurlin at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Inspired by the career of Mike Disfarmer, the only portrait photographer in a small Arkansas town, the performance combines Hurlin’s table-top puppetry with music by Dan Moses Schreier and text by Sally Oswald. Spanning from 1917-1946, Disfarmer’s career was relatively unknown until the 1970s when over 4,000 of his photographs were discovered. His work gained esteem for both its visual qualities and his methods with glass plate photography long after this technology was surpassed. Through a unique visceral experience, the piece pays homage to Disfarmer’s achievements in his portraitist career.

Click here to watch a behind-the-scenes video from St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Panel Discussion: The Discovery of Mike Disfarmer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009  9:30 p.m.
Moderator Philip Gefter with Julia Scully, Brian Wallis, & Peter Miller

Panel Discussion: Disfarmer in the World
Thursday, January 29, 2009  9:30 p.m.
Moderator David Serlin with David Deitcher, Steven Kasher, & Bruno Ceschel

Disfarmer
January 27-February 8, 2009
St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water Street, Brooklyn
(718) 254-8779

New Aperture Magazine
Issue 191, Summer 2008

Features include:
-Sophie Calle: A Lover’s Monologue by Giuseppe Merlino
-The films of Robert Frank by Luc Sante
-The surveillance photographs of Trevor Paglen (cover artist) by Thomas Keenan
-Gilles Peress and John Berger respond to Picasso’s Guerinaca
-Amei Wallach examines Jane Hammond’s photo-collages
-Vince Aletti looks back at the heyday of Town & Country
-The campy photographs of James Bidgood by Philip Gefter
-Recent photography and video from Japan
-Mary Panzer’s unflinching look at Iraq War Veterans

PLUS much more.

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