Visiting the Sidney Mishkin gallery was a pleasant and valuable experience for me.
When the tour around the gallery began, it took my interest completely at once. The gallery shows different exhibits. Now you can enjoy viewing some photos taken by well-known photographers like Larry Fink, Garry Winogrand, Andy Warhol, Lucien Clergue, Neal Slavin, Gilles Peress, Candace Scharsu and Elliot Erwitte. These respected artists are considered as “icons” of the world of the Photography Art. The Mishkin gallery represents mostly black-and white pictures, but you also can see some color pictures. Nevertheless, black-and-white pictures seemed stronger.
Looking at the pictures I admired simplicity of many pictures and got assured in one Russian proverb that “All genius is simple”. All of these artists learned and developed an amazing skill of going far more away from the “box” thinking. That’s why everyone of them has a unique style of photographing. Some pictures show events and objects we would never think to capture. Some pictures show celebrities but majority shows unknown people and ordinary events. Andy Warhol said, “I’ve never met a person I couldn’t call a beauty.” I think this is the main driven force why real artists can find something/someone unique among ordinary people and places.
All pictures shown in the gallery are unique and worth respect. What really touched me were the pictures made by Gilles Peress and Candace Scharsu. They shock people and sometimes disgust. I think I am not the only person to think this way. The pictures of Blood Diamond War Series would never leave someone indifferent. Neal Slavin, one of the artists of the exhibit, once said, “Every picture tells a story.” And this, I think, is absolute truth. But pictures of Blood Diamond War Series tell us an extremely dramatic and sad story of suffer and death of small children. It’s just impossible to forget.
Being under the influence of power and uniqueness of those pictures, I came home and started browsing the web in searching for more works of these artists. I really admire people, who can familiarize us with the beautiful world of the Photography Art.