Wednesday, November 17, 2010

David Vestal: Once Upon a Time in New York

David Vestal: Once Upon a Time in New York at Robert Mann Gallery. "...Featuring an array of photographs taken in New York spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s, David Vestal: Once Upon a Time in New York offers the opportunity to consider this under-appreciated master in greater detail. Learning the idiom of photography through the Photo League, where he was a member and befriended Sid Grossman, Vestal developed a distinctive approach outside the general doctrine associated with that group, generally eschewing the photographic essay in favor of single images that could stand on their aesthetic qualities alone. With an outstanding flare for the atmospheric, Vestal's photographs from this era place him in dialogue with luminaries such as Robert Frank, Aaron Siskind, and Berenice Abbott."