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About the artist: American artist Richard Sandler (b. 1946) has a practice centered on street photography and documentary filmmaking. He is perhaps best known for his street photographs taken in New York City, particularly from the 1980s. Many images, such as Grand Central Terminal and the city’s subway, have become synonymous with nostalgia of the city of the 1980s, as they capture an intimate vision of a bygone era. Originally from Forest Hills, Queens, he first began photographing urban scenes while working in Boston in 1977. After returning to New York a few years later, he continued to develop his photography practice of street, capturing some of the city’s most illustrative and evocative images of the decade. After 2001, Sandler eventually pivoted to focus on documentary filmmaking and directed and produced several films, including The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and radioactive city (2011).
What do you want to know: This month, Avant-Gallery will present the exhibition “Richard Sandler: The eyes of the city” at the premises of the Hudson Yards gallery in New York. Opened on May 18, 2023, the exhibition includes more than 40 traditional gelatin silver prints of photographs taken around the city by Sandler, many of which are not only iconic of the artist’s work, but also of the city. The title of the exhibition is taken from the 2016 publication of the same name, which features his work from 1977 to 2001. The exhibition is in many ways a return to basics for the works, as many of Sandler’s photographs are part New York’s permanent collections, including the New York Public Library, New York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, and Brooklyn Museum.
Why we love it: As a global center of culture, finance and industry, New York City is codified in the collective imagination. Each decade evokes a distinctive atmosphere and aesthetic, and images such as those shot by Sandler allow viewers to step back into an earlier era of life in the city, finding beauty in otherwise overlooked vignettes of the city. everyday life. As Sandler once said, “You could say, ‘Look how fucked up New York was in the 80s, look at all that graffiti,’ but it was also very beautiful. The layering of chance, the marking of one person on another, and it went on for months and years, and it started to look like Jackson Pollock. It was a time when artists such as Keith Haring routinely worked on the subway and the street art scene was booming / Sandler’s photographs capture the indefinable air of the time. Using the inimitable silver gelatin printing process, the images have a distinct sharpness and sense of depth, lending a distinct artistic facet to the photographer’s documentary style.
See the works featured below.
Richard Sandler, Subway Black, New York (1986). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.
Richard Sandler, Hasid and Hipster, NYC (2001). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.
Richard Sandler, Subway Swoon, New York (circa 1986). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.
Richard Sandler, Subway Kiss, NYC (1987). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.
Richard Sandler, CC Train, New York (1985). Courtesy of Avant Gallery.
“Richard Sandler: Eyes of the Cityis on view from May 18 to July 16, 2023 at the Avant Gallery in New York.
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