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Documentary Photography Finds New Home in Tribeca
Wolf, 42, a former filmmaker and television producer who turned to selling photos privately four years ago, is reveling in the chance to bring a wider audience to the kind of photography she cares about most: contemporary work rooted in documentary tradition. “I’m someone who loves to look at photographs and let their narrative come to me, which it always does in spades,” she said. Wolf insists the photos she shows will come from real life, nothing fabricated or digitally manipulated. “When I look at work that’s staged I’m wondering what the photographer was thinking.When I look at work that’s not staged, I am wondering what is really going on.” This season the gallery will present one-person shows from five of Wolf’s six photographers. She alsoplans to host lectures, slide shows and panels. Twenty-seven prints by Paul McDonough, “New York City, 1968-1972,” will inaugurate the gallery. It runs from Sept. 20 to Nov. 10. McDonough’s quirky, multi-layered tableaus are evocative of New York City street photographers Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander and others of that era. It’s not important, Wolf said, that her shows break new artistic ground. “If you tell me one of my artists reminds you of Walker Evans, that’s a great compliment. The idea that everything has to be completely original is hogwash. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just make a wheel that moves me somehow, that challenges me.” And that’s just what Wolf’s artists do for her. She talks about them with the zeal of a fan, not a saleswoman. On a recent visit, one wall was graced by two big prints by Peter Kayafas of men sleeping on benches. One man is horizontal. The other is upright, his mouth agape. “I love living with these characters,” she said enthusiastically. Wolf shares equal enthusiasm for the work of her other artists: Pablo Lopez’s topographic studies of the outskirts of Mexico City; the tongue-in-cheek social commentaries of Yola Monakhov; Thomas Holton’s essay on immigrant Chinatown; and the awful aftermath of Katrina documented by Alan Chin. An Upper West Sider, Wolf said she has had an affinity for Tribeca long before choosing it for her gallery. “I love the architecture, I love the vibe here. It’s a kind of funky cool, but warm, that I really dig. And that’s the kind of place I want to have.” Wolf seems confident that the work will sell here. But also essential, she added, is that the space be seen as “relevant and important” in the heavily competitive New York gallery world. “Can you do that and not be in Chelsea or 57th Street?” she asked. “I don’t know, but we’ll see.” [Home][Back][Search] [Advertise][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
