Annual Association of International Photographic Art Dealers of New York (AIPAD) is taking place this year in Midtown Manhattan, a few blocks from the busiest stretch of Fifth Avenue. As often happens at crowded art fairs, galleries’ attempts to grab the attention of overwhelmed visitors bring out the quieter, smaller, and darker works. Some of these works were also the show’s best, tracing the history of photography over the medium’s nearly 200-year history. At best, the works on display offer glimpses of other times, other places, and the intimate details of other people’s lives.
The fair, open until Sunday April 2, comprises two floors, each filled with stalls showcasing collections of bright, vibrant and puffy prints. Many presentations center on celebrities or personal portraits – whether on stage or in cramped kitchens or living rooms – and reflect a common bias towards photography. As viewers, armed with our own cameras to document our own lives, we often expect photographs to tell us stories about their subjects rather than to offer us purely aesthetic or intellectual experiences. The fair is overwhelming and the gallery owners who occupied the dozens of stalls had no shortage of stories to tell about each work.
On the second floor, Tokyo’s PGI Gallery presented a series of works by Japanese photographer Tokuko Ushioda. A group of six street portraits from the 1970s greet the viewer on the back wall of the stand. This is the first time they have been exhibited.
PGI director Sayaka Takahashi said Hyperallergic that Ushioda was encouraged by her teacher to come out and capture passers-by on the street.
“She recognized that she was really good at doing this,” Takahashi said. “It is not easy.”
Ushioda’s subjects are comfortable and confident. They show no awkwardness or embarrassment, evoking the rockstar kind of self-confidence (they’re also dressed in classic ’70s clothes).
“She discovered that the camera could be a weapon to get rid of something from the subject,” Takahashi explained. “Two years later, she got pregnant and gave birth.” On the adjacent wall, Ushioda’s later work depicts a calmer period in the artist’s life, after she moved away from street photography to care for her child. A stove, a pair of feet on the dashboard and an umbrella consume the frames of the photographs.
While Ushioga’s work conveys confidence and assurance, a collection of photographs from across the fair – from the Southhampton-based Gary Edwards Gallery – show the opposite. Edwards talked about the collection of Civil War photographs he hung on the largest wall in his section. The gallery owner pointed to the group’s most eye-catching work: a photograph of a teenager who had just enlisted. Edwards said new soldiers will have their picture taken in a studio after joining the army. The boy looks “nervous”, according to Edwards, who pointed out that the sword he is holding looks like a prop. (In contrast, more experienced soldiers pose confidently in a portrait hanging next to that of the boy.)
In the mid-19th century, patrons commissioned photographs of themselves and then painted the prints in an attempt to imitate the oil portraits of the wealthy. While many of Edwards’ photographs convey a distinct attempt to make the work appear entirely hand-painted, others on the stand seem to display a first version Instagram and TikTok beauty filters. Subjects have fair, youthful skin and rosy cheeks. Many of the models look eerily similar to picture-perfect 2023 models and influencers.
Like Edwards’, other stands at AIPAD tell a story about the role of photography and its perception in visual culture. The Vienna-based Galerie Johannes Faber exhibits vintage prints by some of the most famous photographers of the 20th century. The works of Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz evoke the origins of contemporary aesthetics, especially as ‘Scandinavian’ and minimalist design trends continue to capture our visual imagination. On another wall in the Faber booth, a Peter Beard photograph of a Rolling Stones fan appears to have been taken yesterday.
While visitors to AIPAD peruse intimate photographs of celebrities and other models, the Yancey Richardson Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood offers a more overtly voyeuristic work, a large-scale print by Guanyu Xu titled “Resident Aliens” (2021). At first glance, the work appears to represent posters and photographs hung in a single space, but closer inspection reveals an arrangement of even more personal images: a shower, a screenshot of a Spotify “year in magazine” and a bedside table. table strewn with a collection of banal everyday objects. While AIPAD has its fair share of boundary-pushing photography, some of its best work is the oldest and most personal.
