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| For collectors, or for anyone with an adventurous spirit, photography blogs can offer an insider’s view of the contemporary photography scene and a taste of what people are looking at. The best are well-informed, highly personal takes on the subject, often with daily updates. “Blogs not only give you a window into what photographers all over the world are shooting but also what they are talking about, from fair use to the latest controversy over an Annie Leibovitz photo,” notes Sarah Boxer, a photography critic and the editor of the anthology Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web (Vintage, 2008). “Blogs pitch you right into the center of a debate,” she says, adding that “occasionally, you should let the links lead you astray.” The trick is to identify bloggers that jibe with your interests and view them often. Chelsea dealer James Danziger maintains pictureyear.blogspot.com, in which he discusses photographs in every conceivable genre, from media images of Danica Patrick, the first woman to win a major car race, to mug shots of Freedom Riders arrested in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. An astute commentator, Danziger writes about his subjects with flair and a deceptively easy style that keeps readers coming back for more. Daniel Cooney, another Chelsea dealer, also started a blog, but he ultimately abandoned it because, he says, “It’s important to keep it active and update frequently.... I just ran out of time.” But one blog Cooney and many of his clients follow is modernartobsession.blogs.com, which offers witty commentary from the perspective of a collector. Michael Hoeh, the Wall Streeter who runs it, recently introduced his readers to the Chicago mega-collectors Ellen and Richard Sandor, and their more than 2,000 late-20th-century images. “You probably couldn’t name an important photographer who wasn’t well represented,” wrote Hoeh. Another blog that Cooney often looks at is Lisa Hunter’s howtobuyart.blogspot.com. Hunter, whose book The Intrepid Art Collector makes her a regular panelist on the art-fair circuit, offers advice designed to help collectors hone their critical skills. Like the best of the photography blogs, she includes links to other sites, among them downtown gallerist Jen Bekman’s jenbekman.com/blog. “What gets people excited about art,” says Bekman, “is the point where they become connected with it. The blog lets this happen much faster than my gallery shows.” The blog, which Bekman started for her 20x200 limited-edition print program, is constantly being updated, and its chatty style is designed to appeal to young photography lovers. “I wanted my blog to be accessible,” she says, “so I keep it informal and easy on the art talk.” Blogs created by photographers, including whatsgoingon-dawoudbeysblog.blogspot.com and whatsthejackanory.com are also a great source of information about what photographers are working on and where they may be exhibiting. They often include links to other photography blogs that are worth exploring, among them amysteinphoto.blogspot.com, zoestrauss.blogspot.com, jmcolberg.com/weblog, and shanelavalette.com/journal. And finally, for photo book lovers, check out Jeffrey Ladd’s 5b4.blogspot.com. In a recent post he offered readers a tip: Christie’s auction catalogue of 51 Diane Arbus photographs from the Bruce and Nancy Berman collection, many of which had never before been published, was itself likely to become a highly collectible item. Copyright ©2008 photograph. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission. |
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