The Picture from LALA Land

The world of the art fair seems to have exploded in the past ten years, with more and more specialized art fairs cropping up in all major (and many minor) cities across the globe. As the art market continues its enormous expansion, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to the number and spread of these fairs. There are fairs that specialize in paintings, sculpture, outsider art and of course photography. Unlike events such as FotoFest in Houston or PhotoNola in New Orleans, however, Photo Fairs (and Art Fairs in general) aren’t really set up for artists. There are no portfolio reviews, artist workshops or panel discussions. Art Fairs are solely designed for galleries, collectors and the public at large as a showcase for new work and as a preview of what the gallery will be exhibiting in the near future.

One of the oldest Art Fairs for Photography, Photo L.A., took place in Santa Monica last month and I had an opportunity to check it out. It was the 17th annual exposition and had a little over 70 exhibitors from across the United States and several International exhibitors as well. It’s a three day event, but I was only able to spend a few hours there on the first day (which was very, very tiring). The entry fee was $20 - which gives you admission to the event as well a beautiful little catalog/directory of all participating exhibitors. The catalog was very welcome and necessary to navigate the almost overwhelming maze of exhibitors. I’ve attended Photo L.A. in the past, but this is the first time (in my experience) that such a luxury was given to attendees.

The exhibit itself was mind-numbing. The crowds of people looking at work (and the occasional celebrity), the mass of gallery reps talking up artists and selling the artists’ work and of course the work itself. It was all bit too much at times and after the first 2 hours I felt fatigued and numbed. It was all I could do to make notes and jot down some observations.

First, this year’s Photo L.A. featured several prominent international galleries including Hackelbury Fine Art, from London; Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, from Paris and Galleria PaciArte Contemporary, from Brescia, Italy. My favorite showing was the contingent from the Queensland Centre for Photography, from Australia. They featured the luscious still-lifes of Marian Drew and the very literal work of Martin Smith. This strong international contingent lead me to my second observation about Photo L.A. 17, that there seemed to be more contemporary work on display than before. One gallery, Craig Krull, even used its massive booth to feature an installation by the brilliant Yamamoto Masao. His delicate installation was like an oasis in the din. There were a number of book dealers and publishers as well. Including D.A.P., Aperture and Bondi Books along with several book dealers that specialized in new, small run artbooks for photographers. One such company, ModernBook, featured the work from the venerable Jerry Uelsmann as well as the 3-D work of Claudia Kunin (who was also exhibiting with three different galleries at the expo).

There were dozens of galleries specializing in vintage prints (which appeared to be the most crowded ones). Even galleries that did not specialize in vintage prints had a few Westons and Steichens on the wall. There so many dealers of such work that, my friend Kirsten (whose sister is photographer Stefanie Schneider) posited: “There are too many old pictures.” I tried to explain to her about the sort of “anti-digital” movement afoot in photography and why vintage prints were so important to collectors, but it did make me wonder, “Why are there so many old pictures?” I do not mean old in the sense of age, but old in the sense of the status-quo. While this was the most contemporary Photo L.A. I’d attended, it was still very conservative. Yes, the pictures were all beautiful and as a collector I was overjoyed to see such a diversity of image types, but as an art maker and educator I was underwhelmed by the lack of challenging images. There was almost no video art (I saw three pieces) and even fewer photographic abstractions and almost no purely conceptual photography. LACDA did have some work by Andy Lomas, who generates fractal abstractions that are vaguely floral. Why should galleries at huge expo events promote such work? Simple, a gallery’s mission should be to not only create a venue for artists to be able to show and sell their wares, but also create an environment that nurtures a conversation between viewers, collectors and artists. This conversation should go well beyond the aesthetic or commodifying aspects of art. An event like Photo L.A. would be a great place for the exhibition of such work. Dealers can show both "old" and "new" work side by side, collectors can at once see the intellectual as well the material. It’s a win win.

Overall, Photo L.A. was satisfying (if a bit dry at times). I was glad to see that photography is alive and vibrant and continues to expand. I’m looking forward to next year as well as the smattering of art fairs that are about to start here in New York. Hopefully, there will be a few more surprises.

See the entire list of Photo L.A. participants (with links) at this site: artfairsinc.com/photola/2008/exhibitors.html

S. Boonchai