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• Archive Newsletters
• Issue #49
• Article

As previously announced, the Armory Photography Show 2002 will be held at the Javits Center North Pavilion in New York City from Friday, October 25 to Monday, October 28, 2002.

It is shaping up as a cannot-miss event. Already 85 top dealers have signed up, along with 17 publishing houses, bringing the booth total to over 100. Because AIPAD has chosen to reduce its show's booth numbers for its next show in favor of larger size booths, the Armory Photography Show has now taken over the lead in terms of number of photography art dealers, square footage and total booths for a photography exhibition. Its closest rival is now the similarly styled Paris Photo, which still can claim the title of largest show--at least this year. Both of these shows are mixing it up with contemporary and vintage photography exhibiting side by side in large art fair-like booths. The mix has proved to be intoxicating at Paris Photo, and New York City was due for a show like this.

The organizers, who also produce the Armory Show: the International Fair of New Art (and hence the name of this new show), are positioning the exhibition as "the first fair celebrating the best in photo-based contemporary art, video and vintage photography." The organizers claim that their goal is to expand the collecting universe for photographs and photo-based works by bringing together the traditional photo collector with collectors of contemporary art. It is a difficult goal but could prove to be a potent draw. Already top dealers who rarely exhibit--and never at photography fairs--have signed up for this one, including Fraenkel, P-P-O-W and Matthew Marks, while major photography dealers, such as ourselves (Vintage Works, Ltd., booth 216), Howard Greenberg, Lee Marks, Klotz/Sirmon, Robert Koch, Halsted Gallery, Fay Gold, Kicken Berlin, Robert Mann, Pace MacGill and others are also on the venue.

Vintage Works will devote one of its walls to master French photographer Gustave Le Gray, while other walls will be a mix of 19th and 20th-century master images. We will also have a room in the booth for you to view the rest our extensive inventory. The organizers have smartly recognized that bins are not necessarily the problem, but a clean professional image is absolutely necessary.

What the organizers term a "Vernissage", which is a opening night private viewing, is scheduled for Thursday night, October 24 from 6 to 9 pm. Tickets for this special preview are $50 and are available at the door. They include a permanent pass to the fair, one drink ticket and a program. A cash bar will be available.

Besides the Vernissage, the regular public hours on Friday through Sunday will be 11 am to 7 pm, and on Monday from 11 am to 5 pm. Tickets cost $15, but if you print out this page of the newsletter and bring it to the ticket box office, you will get $5 off the price of admission. This discount does not apply to Thursday night. No formal catalogues will apparently be distributed, but there will be an extensive printed program.

The George Eastman House will present a specially designed exhibition that will include historical and contemporary masterworks from its collection. From early processes, including calotypes and daguerreotypes, to contemporary iterations of these processes, the exhibition will demonstrate the strong alliance between photography and printmaking that gave rise to photomechanical processes, which in turn laid the foundation for new digital technologies. On-site demonstrations and handouts of the historical and contemporary processes, including care and condition, will be offered to the show's visitors. A conservator from the GEH will also be available during the show to discuss issues of preservation, conservation and authenticity of historical and contemporary photography, including digitally derived imagery.

The Javits Center North Pavilion is located on Manhattan's far West Side on 11th Ave. at 39th St., just north of the main Javits complex. Both the M34 and M42 buses run by the Javits Center, but most visitors will probably arrive by taxi. The nearest subway lines are at 34th St. or 42nd St. There are over a dozen parking facilities within walking distance.