Stories We Wish We Knew More About: Valuable Drtikol Ptint Recovered

"The Wave" by Frantisek Drtikol

 I sort of told myself I wouldn't just reprint press releases in this blog, but the following missive from the Association of International Art Dealers (AIPAD) is intriguing and well told, and not too self-serving. It’s about how $250,000-plus Frantisek Drtikol print was stolen then recovered by a quick-thinking art dealer. I like tales with happy endings. But does this story make you feel any better about the murky world of art dealing? Here's the AIPAD release:

The Party I Would Most Like to Attend

 
It seems Taschen is bringing out a 3D version of "The Big Book of Breasts," which was already almost too colossal in 2D. All I can say is I'm glad they didn't do a 3D version of "The Big Penis Book." They're having a party to celebrate at the Taschen store in Beverly Hills, and here I am stuck on the wrong coast. Question: Is this just the beginning of a spate of 3D photo books?

Week in Photos: Gbagbo, Gaga, and other Unexpected Sights

How often do you get to write the names "Gbagbo" and "Gaga" in the same sentence? For my full weekly photo review, go here.

 1. Unmasked

The fighting in Ivory Coast came to an end this week with the capture of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to leave office after losing an election last year. In this picture from AFP/Getty Images, Gbagbo is seen with his wife after opposition forces reached him in his residence. His appearance confounds expectations. The picture reminded me of the moment in Star Wars when Darth Vader is unmasked, revealing the warlord to be nothing but old, vulnerable man.

2. Bosom Buddy

Lady Gaga's appearance in the May issue of Harper's Bazaar--in a fashion layout shot by Terry Richardson--also confounds expectations, but that's her game. She is what former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld would call a known unknown. In this picture she seems to be attending a tea party that would give the Mad Hatter second thoughts.

3. The Killing

In this photo by Robert Stolarik for the New York Times, we see police searching for human remains on Long Island, where the bodies of ten people, at least found believed to be prostitutes, have been found along a highway near a popular beach. The evocative image--misty and mysterious--is loaded with narrative power. This is not Stieg Larsson murder, though. It's the real thing.

4. Depth of Field

What appears at first to be a toy boat is the real thing, left amid a debris field by the tsunami that his northern Japan last month. Look closely at this photo by Damir Sagoli for Reuters and you can see a woman walking her bicycle through the debris in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture.

5. Parking A Lot

Luckily for the driver of this SUV, a parking place has opened up in a roadside lot in New Delhi, India. Kevin Frayer captured the maneuver for AP.

Iconic Monday: Tiger's Masterpiece

What an end to the 2011 Masters! Poor Rory McIlroy, who faded under pressure. And then there was Tiger, mounting a comeback that fell short--I think I saw him yip on that four-foot put he missed.

     The Masters is, IMHO, the one PGA major that casual sports fans, like myself, will plunk themselves in front of a TV to watch. And like most casual sports fans, I pretty much watch to see how Tiger Woods is doing. 

      Which brings me to the subject of this Iconic Monday post: Fred Vuich's shot of Tiger launching a drive on the 18th hole of the final round of the Masters in 2001. Many sports photographers and editors I know consider it to be the greatest golf image ever made. It appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, with just a single, superlative coverline, “Masterpiece,” which summed up both Tiger's play that year and the image itself. (I myself have called this the greatest golf image ever.)

      Ten years ago, in April 2001, America had yet to see the terror of 9/11, or the two wars that followed, or the election of its first black president. Tiger Woods, with one Masters win under his belt when he entered the tournament, had already fulfilled his early promise of greatness and was well on his way to becoming legend. A decade after the image was made, the legend has been tarnished, and Tiger's legacy has gone to rewrite.  But the image taken of April 16, 2001 remains.

      Vuich, who shot mostly for Golf magazine and occassionall for SI (both owned by Time Inc.) had been assigned to shoot the 16th and 18th holes that day in Augusta. In addition to his 35mm SLR--the standard for sports photographers--he had a rather unorthodox piece of equipment with him: a manual-focus medium format camera with a 43mm lens. It was that camera Vuich chose to use while documenting Tiger's final drive of the tournament: ""I thought it would make a nice opener" Vuich told the Sports Shooter blog.The camera lacked a motor drive, which meant that he would have only one chance to get the perfect shot, relying on his own sense of timing to get press the shutter at the instant Woods reached the apex of his swing. 

      The result was a picture like no other taken that day. It wasn’t a closeup of Woods with arms raised in ecstasy; it wasn’t a close-up of his determined face, or a flash of action. Rather, it was painterly, even pastoral: Less a timely report on what had happened than a timeless meditation on the game itself.  

  

    

      

  

The Week in Photos: Brooke Shield; Prince William; Mark Zuckerberg

My weekly photo review is up at Le Lettre de la Photographie...here's the usual sampling.

1. William and Grandmother

The is a photo pool image shot by Christopher Furlong for the New York Times. That lady in the red coat  is Queen Elizabeth II, visiting a Royal Air Force Base in Wales. She was greeted there by her grandson, the soon-to-be-married Prince William, who is stationed at the base as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. The man at right is the Queen's husband, and William's grandfather, Prince Philip. Perhaps William is admiring the Queen's sensible shoes. We just don't know, because photos don't talk.

2. Ageless Brooke

Allure magazine's April issue has a heartening piece about ageless beauty--heartening, because it is illustrated with portraits of former supermodels who, while of a certain age, maintain a high degree of incredibleness. The pictures were all shot by Patrick Demarchelier, a photographer who also maintains incredibleness. Brooke Shield managed to keep it all real, though: She told the magazine that when she drinks too much, or doesn't get enough sleep, she looks five years older. 

3. Mark of Success

The April issue of Success magazine features a cover shot of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, shot by photographer Jill Greenberg. A few years ago Greenberg stirred up some controversy by taking pictures of crying toddlers. She's also shot bears, monkeys, John McCain, and I suppose other species as well. She has a signature style that always seems to make her subjects look both familiar and alien. Imagine a Venn diagram, where one circle represents "cute" and the other represents "scary." In the overlapping area, you'd find this image of Zuckerberg.

4. Red Riders

Ivory Coast's embattled Laurent Gbagbo seems to be on his way out--hiding in a bunker, the last I heard. In this photo by Philippe Lsiazek for AFP, which shows fighters loyal to Gbagbo, we see what the past weeks of life have been like there.

5. Muammer Love

Another embattled leader, Libya's Muammer el-Qaddafi, seems to be holding onto power, despite NATO intervention. This Qaddafi supporter, photographed in Tripoli by Moises Saman for the New York Times, is happy to have him stay. Very happy, it would appear.

Auction Hero: Calhoun Daguerreotype Sells for $338,500

John C. Calhoun by Mathew Brady, 1849

 I don't get to do much breaking news here, but this morning I attended the morning session of Sotheby's spring photography auction in New York, where a 1849 daguerreotype of the great American politician John C. Calhoun sold for $338,000.

If you believe--as I sort of do--that art sales results reflect the overall state of the economy, then the morning session today indicates that we are well underway with recovery from the financial perils of 2008. Buyers seem to be sticking with the classics, though, just in case the rug gets pulled out again: A circa-1960s print of Ansel Adams's "Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, From Manzanar, California," sold for $182,500, and Edward Weston's "Dunes, Oceano," shot in 1936 and printed in the 1940s, went for $158,500.

"Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, From Manzanar, California," by Ansel Adams

"Dunes, Oceano," by Edward Weston

 As is typical these days, the auction gallery at Sotheby's was sparsely populated--perhaps 50 to 75 bidders on hand. (My friend Stephen Perloff, who edits The Photograph Collector newsletter, likens auctions these days to a Mets game in September.) But there was plenty--plenty--of auction action phone bidders. Denise Bethel, head of Sotheby's photography department, handled it all with aplomb from her podium, her voice sometimes sounding like one of those police dispatchers in old movies (Lot 41...Timothy O'Sullivan...Canyon de Chelle...thank you...over and out...").

The big dag of the day was made by Mathew Brady in 1849. The image became one of his most famous portraits, noted for the way it captured Calhoun's penetrating gaze (or as my son Henry would say, his "crazy-ass eyes.") It was widely printed and was used as the basis of a painting by Henry Darby that is now owned by the U.S. Senate. The actual object for sale here--the daguerreotype--was only recently rediscovered, according to Sotheby's.


High prices at auction often simply reflect the competition between two motivated bidders, and that seemed to be the case with this lot. But objects like this, in their rarity, have intrinsic historical value. Calhoun was a giant of American politics, a cngressman, senator, secretary of war under James Madison and vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Adams's archrival Andrew Jackson. He was a great orator in an era of oratorical greatness, parrying with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. He was a champion for his state, South Carolina, which at the time was pushing the idea of nullification--whereby states could ignore federal laws they didn't like. Jackson killed that effort, saving the union for another 30 or so years.

All in all, an interesting morning.

Iconic Monday: A Brief History of Briefs (and Bras)

You know it was a slow weekend for me, because I caught myself reading this piece yesterday, which I will now summarize in case you don't want to go to the bother of reading it for yourself.

A poll of Britons, conducted by Outdoor Media Centre, ascertained that the most iconic billboard of all time was the famous "Hello Boys" advertisement from Victoria's Secret, in which model Eva Herzigova is seen admiring her girls, which are cinched up in a Wonderbra. The article says that tens of thousands of Brits were polled. Whether that means tens of thousands of Brits responded, I don't know. If they did, they've got too much time on their hands and might want to find a nice English hobby, like cheeserolling.

The Wonderbra billboard began popping up in 1994. I happen to remember. It was a terrific ad, fulsome, even—with humor—but it was not the most iconic billboard of all time. Even the British should know that.

The greatest billboard of all time was the 1982 advertisement for Calvin Klein underwear that towered over Times Square in 1982. Bruce Weber's shot of lean, tanned male wearing nothing but his  Calvins stopped traffic—and in those days Times Square was a really colorful place, with many interesting things to see in every direction, so it really took something to get traffic to stop.

The model was Tom Hintnaus, a Brazilian pole vaulter. (I could just stop this post here: How much more do you really have to say after you've said  "Brazilian pole vaulter?") Weber took him to the Greek Island of Santorini and backed him up against one of those white-walled buildings they specialize in there, the sky the color of the Aegean Sea (or what I imagine the color of the Aegean to be--I've never been). Hintnaus leaned backward, Weber shot upward, no doubt keeping in mind the all-important rule of thirds as he composed.
 

 You can look the ad up on Wikipedia and other websites, and you will see that American Photographer magazine named the ad as one of the "10 Pictures that Changed the America." That isn't true; I had just started editing the magazine when we did that story in 1989, and we actually named it one of the "10 Pictures that Changed the World." The image, we noted (as many others have as well), eroticized the male form in a way that had never been done before--or at least in such a mainstream commercial way. Tighty-whiteys went from being functional apparel to being lingerie, and men went evolved from sexual beings into sex objects. So in that sense we can connect the dots between Tom Hintnaus and Eva Herzigova.

Today, of course, the vampire boys in True Blood and the gladiators in Spartacus: Blood and Sand are often seen without any underwear at all, and it's cool. As for Victoria's Secret, the Wonderbra—"wonder" connoting something marvelous that mankind has made—has given way to the Miracle Bra—"miracle" implying some sort of supernatural intervention. And where's the funny in that? Times Square has the Naked Cowboy, of course, but only the tourists from Ohio pay any attention to him.