stephen cohen: photo l.a.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Stephen Cohen, creator of the
highly acclaimed photo l.a., the
longest running art fair in Los Angeles history, which celebrates its 20th
Anniversary January 13 - 16, 2011 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The
largest photo-based art fair in the country, photo l.a. brings together
photography dealers from around the globe, displaying the finest masterworks
from the 19th century continuing through modern photography stars and
emerging photographers.
My conversation with Stephen about art was all over the map in a good
way--from film noir to the upcoming
Pacific Standard Time to speed
dating for artists {not what you're thinking}--and we both share a love and
passion for Los Angeles as an arts destination. Not only is he the founder
and driving force behind photo l.a., but produces the highly acclaimed
artLA art fair, photo NY, several other
art fairs, and runs the
Stephen Cohen Gallery.
photo l.a. special events
photo l.a. is one of my favorite Los Angeles art events to attend, and this
year's show includes special installations, a video lounge, lectures &
collecting seminars plus a few more exciting happenings that I'll be posting
about soon. This year a new art/photography book fair bridging both the
photo l.a. and artLA art fairs is also being introduced to serve a growing
patron base that includes over 11,000 collectors, curators and dealers of
photography. One of the highlights of the upcoming photo l.a. show is
Troubled Waters, a panel of experts that include Jean Michael Cousteau,
Ernest Brooks, and Jeanine Adams, who will be discussing art and
politics--specifically as it relates to the heated water issues that have
plagued California history.
new trends in photography
Stephen says there are always new trends in photography, but the advent
of social networking has changed the face of photography. People post photos
of themselves casually taken on their cell phones, tweet videos, and view
hundreds of these images daily. Obviously this is not how photography or
portraits were ever viewed in the past. He related a story of how his
facebook photo is being used in an installation of facebook photos at
The Museum of New Art in Detroit. When he saw that his photo had been
placed above David Hockney's, it felt like kismet--years ago Stephen had
worked for Hockney as a color supervisor for Hockney's Pompidou series.
Stephen marveled that the cost of installing this kind of exhibition is the
price of burning a CD and printing it out on a desk printer!
the La Brea Matrix Project
Over the next few months, I'll be following up with a
series of interviews with artists and gallerists participating in photo l.a.,
and will also be covering Part II of The
La Brea Matrix Project. Part I was exhibited last January at photo l.a.
2010. The La Brea Matrix, a project of Schaden.com, Cologne & The Lapis
Press, Culver City, features the results of six photographers in an
artists-in-residence program that searched for photographic points of
reference to Stephen Shore’s iconic 1975 photograph.
For more information on the January 14-16 2011 event please go to
photola.com. photo l.a. will feature
many of the world’s leading galleries and private dealers representing
international, regional and U.S. artists.
Images: Mark Shaw Vanity Fair Gown, 1955; photo l.a. 2010; Autism Series,
Blind Photographers Guild; Stephen Shore