Henry Wessel: Celebrating the Views That Others Looked Past – New York Times:

For the last 30 years or so, Mr. Wessel has been photographing the American West. Not the mountains and redwoods, but the parking lots, body builders, nude beaches and absurdly trimmed shrubbery. And the light.

He is having his moment. There have been shows lately at the Robert Mann and Charles Cowles galleries in New York. The exhibition here has about 80 mostly black-and-white prints that cover his whole career, one whose arc may make you scratch your head yet again at how distracted and fickle the art world can sometimes be.

He‚s a photographer‚s photographer. Born in 1942, he grew up in suburban New Jersey, then studied psychology at Penn State, borrowing a Leica one day from his girlfriend‚s brother. „It really knocked me out,‰ he has recalled. „I had never really seen how a camera could describe something.‰

Wessel’s work is currently on display at SFMOMA, a short drive for me – I need to go soon. (I saw Avedon’s American West photographs at Stanford last week – wow!)

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My brother Richard Mitchell does wonderful photography in the Pacific Northwest, and his work is starting to get the wider attention it deserves. Right now a collection of his photographs is on display at the Washington State Capitol in the offices of Lt. Governor Brad Owen.

Washington State Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, Linda Owen, and Richard Mitchell. Lieutenant Governor’s Front Office, January, 2007.

Visit the Touching Light Photography web site to view more of Richard’s work.
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My brother Richard Mitchell does wonderful photography in the Pacific Northwest, and his work is starting to get the wider attention it deserves. Right now a collection of his photographs is on display at the Washington State Capitol in the offices of Lt. Governor Brad Owen.

Washington State Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, Linda Owen, and Richard Mitchell. Lieutenant Governor’s Front Office, January, 2007.

Visit the Touching Light Photography web site to view more of Richard’s work.
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Excerpted from the <Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer:

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled night photography posts for an important announcement…

… a copy of Avedon at Work in the American West by Laura Wilson… re-sparked my interest in Richard Avedon and portraiture. This morning I noticed that this show is actually on display, as we speak, just up the road at Stanford University (near Palo Alto, CA).

The show, titled In the American West, Photographs by Richard Avedon, is at the Cantor Center for the Arts (on the Stanford campus) through May 6th, 2007. And the best part… it’s free!
– Andy Frazer [Night Photography blog by Andy Frazer]

Wow! I had no idea. Stanford is “just up the road” from me as well. (I’m a faculty member at De Anza College in Cupertino.) I also was given a copy of this Avedon book recently and am fascinated by this project and the images that came from it.

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