Historical Humanism — The Photography of Anthony Friedkin
I first saw Anthony Friedkin’s work at the Stephen Cohen Gallery on Beverly Boulevard about six months ago. A large black and white fiber print of four overly muscled prisoners who were in full-body jackets of gangbanging tattoos. The four men stood shirtless, in the exercise yard at Folsom prison, their arms wrapped around one another, skin to skin. The image conveyed a naked intimacy that was intensely compelling and it had layers of profound emotional subtext that communicated the sadness and pain they shared in their incarceration, the quiescent violence of their personas, and their homeboy pride. It also tenderly evoked the physical love they felt for each other. It was quite an image.
All entries filed under Photography
WORDS SIMONE KUSSATZ
IMAGES COURTESY GLEN WEXLER STUDIO
You Shouldn’t Have to Shout So Loud (2010), Album cover for True Nature.
Some careers take off like a rocket into space. This was the experience of photographer Glen Wexler, who was commissioned to do an album cover for music producer Quincy Jones, when he was still a student at [...]
WORDS PHIL TARLEY
IMAGES COURTESY of FRANK GREEN and THE LAB CIBA
Little metal magnets adhere to a seven-foot test-strip flush against the viewing board on the back wall of The Lab. With the light adjusted just so, Frank Green pores over the tests, evaluating the work, offering up suggestions for final color and exposure corrections. Every [...]
WORDS PHIL TARLEY
IMAGES COURTESY of LACMA and the PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS COUNCIL
The Photographic Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art supports LACMA’S Wallis Annenberg photography department. A relatively young organization, it was started in 2001 to help the museum develop an audience educated in photography. Over the years, it has morphed [...]
WORDS PHIL TARLEY
IMAGES COURTESY of ZEITGEIST FILMS
“We all get dressed for Bill,” says Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The “Bill” in question is New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, who is 80+. For decades, this Schwinn-riding cultural documentarian has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society soirees for the Times Style Section in [...]